The U.S. economy is unlikely to slide back into recession, a top Federal Reserve official said on Friday.

"I am quite optimistic the economy will keep growing," William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in response to an audience question at a conference for business journalists in New York.

"A double-dip is not the issue, the issue is how do we get the economy to grow faster," he said.

The president of the New York Fed has a permanent voting seat on the Fed's policy-setting committee.