Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday that US economic growth is slowing and acknowledged there was the risk of a recession, but she said a downturn was not inevitable, Reuters reported.

Yellen, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press", said strong US hiring numbers and consumer spending showed the country’s economy is not currently in recession.

US hiring remained robust in June, with 372,000 jobs created and the unemployment rate holding at 3.6%. It was the fourth straight month of job gains in excess of 350,000.

"This is not an economy that is in recession," said Yellen, who previously chaired the Federal Reserve. "But we’re in a period of transition in which growth is slowing and that’s necessary and appropriate."

Yellen said that inflation in the US "is way too high" and recent Fed rates hikes were helping to bring soaring prices back in check. 

In addition, US President Joe Biden’s administration is selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which Yellen said had already helped lower gasoline prices. 

Yellen, a former Fed chief, hopes the US central bank can cool the economy enough to bring down prices without triggering a broad economic downturn in the country. 

The US GDP shrank at a 1.6% annual rate in the first quarter, and a report on Thursday is expected to show a gain of just 0.4% in the second quarter, according to economists polled by Reuters. 

Yellen said that even if second-quarter figure is negative, it would not signal that a recession has taken hold in the US, given the strength in the country’s job market and strong demand.