Finance Minister P Chidambaram expects some slowdown in all sectors and added that the impact of global crisis in India would last for six-nine months. He said that exports, capital flows and exchange rates would get affected but added that the global crisis would not have a direct impact on India.

Chidambaram, who attended the G-20 Meet in Washington — the next of which is scheduled in April 2009 — said the meet had adopted a detailed and ambitious action plan. There was a broad agreement [at the G-20] on common accounting standards among countries, Chidambaram added, terming it as a coordinated effort to work on financial stability. He also felt that more governance reforms are needed in the IMF, or International Monetary Fund, and expects more representation for developing countries.



The Finance Minister also added that developing countries were still under represented. He said that protectionism was not the answer to the current crisis and believes that free flow of goods, services and capital was the key to solve the current crisis.