WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - Canadian money markets are showing signs of improving, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said on Friday, suggesting the bank and government may not need to intervene further to help fix impaired credit markets.

Carney said that this week interbank credit spreads fell to pre-crisis levels and that over the past few weeks there have been "many signs" of improvement in money markets.

"The direction is, at this stage, encouraging," Carney told reporters following a G7 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Washington.

"Canadian interbank spreads have fallen to levels of pre-crisis, not pre-Lehman but pre-crisis this week, which gives you a sense of how far things have moved in some markets," he said.

The comments reaffirm the central bank's reticence to engage in unconventional policies to boost the economy, now that it has cut its benchmark interest rate to almost zero.

On Thursday the bank provided an outline of additional action it could take, if necessary, to stimulate lending. These included expanding the money supply through purchasing securities in the market, known as quantitative easing, and buying private-sector assets in specific markets that are in trouble, which it calls credit easing.

On Tuesday it cut its overnight lending rate to a historic low of 0.25 percent and, in an unusual move, promised to keep it at that level until mid-2010.

Carney noted improvement in spreads for asset-backed commercial paper and in some corporate bond markets. (Reporting by Louise Egan; editing by Rob Wilson)