White House: U.S. economy resilient long term

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday, after data showing U.S. consumer confidence fell to a 16-year low, the long-term resiliency of the U.S. economy was very strong.

"We know that Americans are concerned about the economy, we have been concerned about the economy," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

But she also said it was going to take a while for the economic stimulus package to take effect and for that to be reflected in economic data, such as retail sales.

"We are confident that it will have the impact that we thought it would toward the latter half of the year. We believe that the long-term resilience of our economy is very strong," Perino said.

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria)