Washington - Former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan warned that a "significant rise" in unemployment was unavoidable as the United States works its way through a massive financial crisis that will not ease up for many months.

"We are in the midst of a once in a century credit tsunami," Greenspan said in prepared remarks before the Oversight Committee of the US House of Representatives.

The drop in housing prices, which precipitated the crisis and sparked a record number of home foreclosures, will not stabilize until "many months in the future," he said.

London  - Former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan said on Friday that he sees a turning point in the current financial crisis, with the troubled US housing market recovering in the first half of 2009.

Writing in Emerging Markets, a British financial publication, Greenspan said that he saw the "eventual thawing" of the world's frozen credit markets and that "more conclusive signs of pending home price stability are likely to become visible in the first half of 2009."