The Obama administration hopes to keep the top tax rate on dividends and capital gains at 20 percent, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the "Kudlow Report" on Wednesday.

CNBC.com Timothy Geithner

Geithner said every effort will be made to ensure that any tax changes that are proposed will benefit businesses that create jobs and individuals.

"We're going to make sure that we keep at 20 percent the existing rates on dividends and capital gains," Geithner said. "We think that's good policy."

The Treasury secretary also said the economy is “healing” and the recovery so far looks “very encouraging.”

“We’re repairing the damage caused by the [financial] crisis,” Geithner said. “We’re growing, and we’ve been growing now for 12 months.” (Watch the full interview here)

He pointed to “six months of sustained growth in private-sector jobs,” noting, “Coming out of the last recession, it took us almost two years before we had a sustained set of month-to-month increases in private-sector jobs.” Geithner also said that that growth “is being led by business investment, by exports, by manufacturing.”

His outlook going forward?

“I think that the most likely thing is you’re going to see an economy that is growing at a moderate pace,” Geithner said, “hopefully strengthening over time.”

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—Reuters contributed to this report.