WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Thursday that the U.S. economy was slowing but resilient and the central bank believed the need to foster growth and curb inflation was roughly in balance.

His comments before a congressional economic committee suggested that Fed governors were disinclined to lower interest rates further despite volatility on Wall Street.

The stock market initially slumped on Bernanke’s views, then recovered most of its losses by the closing bell. The Dow Jones industrial average, which tumbled 361 points Wednesday amid fresh concerns about the economy, closed down 33.73 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,266.29 Thursday, after falling as much as 221 points early in the session.

“On preliminary estimates, real gross domestic product grew at an average pace of nearly 4 percent over the second and third quarters despite the ongoing correction in the housing market,” Bernanke told Congress. “Core inflation has improved modestly, although recent increases in energy prices will likely lead overall inflation to rise for a time.”

The Fed has lowered interest rates twice since the summer in an effort to keep a drop in housing sales and prices from causing broader economic damage. But Bernanke suggested that economic indicators released in recent days did not show more cuts were warranted.

The data “continued to suggest that the overall economy remained resilient in recent months,” Bernanke said, although he noted that financial markets remained skittish.

“The (Federal Reserve) will continue to carefully assess the implications for the outlook of the incoming economic data and financial market developments and will act as needed to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth,” he said.

Bernanke said the Fed did not believe the economy was slipping into a recession.

“Our forecast is for moderate but positive growth going forward,” he said.

Bernanke said he was not alarmed by recent drops in the value of the dollar on international exchange markets.

“The dollar has remained the dominant reserve asset, and I expect that to continue to be the case,” Bernanke said.

But the U.S. currency fell to a new low against the euro Thursday, and also slid against the British pound, the Swiss franc and other key currencies. The slumping dollar raises fears that foreigners may lose their appetite for U.S. investments, because those assets are devalued with each drop in the greenback.

The Fed chairman said that declines in housing prices might suppress consumer spending during the holiday season, but he said the Fed did not consider it a significant threat to the economy.

“We do not take an alarmist view of this,” he said.