Tim Geithner tells Obama: I'll stay in job

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is staying put, the Obama administration announced Sunday.

"Secretary Geithner has let the president know that he plans to stay on in his position at Treasury," a Treasury spokeswoman said in a statement.

Geithner plans to stay at least into the fall of 2012, an administration official told CNN.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the president had asked Geithner to stay and "welcomes his decision."

The affirmation about Geithner's status comes at a volatile time in the economy.

Standard & Poor's on Friday stripped the United States of its sterling credit rating -- the first time the country has been downgraded from AAA status.

Last week, the U.S. stock market suffered its worst week since the depths of the financial crisis on fears that the economic recovery is fading

And Europe is caught in the throes of an escalating debt panic.

Rumors swirled last month that Geithner would leave once Congress resolved a months-long fight over raising the debt ceiling.

At the time, a Treasury official said that Geithner would not make any decisions while focused on negotiations over the debt limit and deficit reduction.

The idea that Geithner would depart resurfaced this week after Congress finally raised the debt ceiling at the last minute.

Geithner is the lone remaining member of Obama's original economic team and has reportedly developed a close working relationship with Obama.

Obama nominated Geithner to be the 75th Secretary of the Treasury, and the Senate confirmed him on Jan. 26, 2009.

Geithner went on to spearhead the administration's response to the financial crisis that threatened to unravel economic growth around the globe.

That response included a bailout of the U.S. auto industry, a massive economic stimulus package and a landmark Wall Street reform effort. So-called stress tests of the nation's largest banks in early 2009 also helped shore up confidence in financial markets.

Geithner's first days in the administration were not without stumbles, as markets met his efforts to support the banking industry with skepticism, and giant bonuses paid to executives at bailed-out insurer AIG sparked public outrage.

But Geithner emerged as one of the strongest voices on Obama's economic team.

Another member of Obama's original team, Council of Economic Advisers chairman Austan Goolsbee, is leaving the administration to return to the University of Chicago.

National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers, and Office of Management director Peter Orszag left the administration last year. Christina Romer, the original chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, has also left.

Before joining the administration, Geithner held the top post at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he played a crucial advisory role during the financial crisis of 2008.

Before joining the Fed, he held posts at the IMF and worked in the Clinton administration Treasury Department.

--CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.