Washington ? Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, delivering his first economic report to Congress, declared Wednesday that the economy had snapped smartly out of an end-of-year lull, although inflation and other risks remained. He left the door open to higher interest rates in the future.

Recent economic barometers on jobs, production, retail sales and other business activity in January “suggests that the economic expansion remains on track,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee. The expansion, he said, does have “a lot of staying power.”

The economy in the final quarter of last year hit a rough patch, growing by an anemic rate of just 1.1 percent, the slowest in three years, as lingering fallout from Gulf Coast hurricanes and the toll of high energy prices led to belt tightening by consumers and businesses. Most private economists are expecting good growth in the current January-to-March quarter.

High energy prices, a strengthening labor market where unemployment dipped to a 4 1/2-year low, and a solidly growing economy could fan inflation pressures – forces that the Fed will need to keep a close eye on, Bernanke said.

Bernanke, whose first day on the job was Feb. 1, said he agreed with Fed policymakers’ assessment at their Jan. 31 meeting that interest rates may need to move higher.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the economic expansion has

“The Fed judged that some further firming of monetary policy may be necessary, an assessment with which I concur,” he said.

Decisions on the future course of interest rates will depend more heavily on what upcoming reports say about economic activity and inflation, Bernanke said.

“In coming quarters, the (Fed) will have to make ongoing, provisional judgments about the risks to both inflation and growth, and monetary policy actions will be increasingly dependent on incoming data,” Bernanke said.

His first meeting as Fed chairman to decide interest rates will be March 27-28.