Washington, June 23 (IANS) The worst global recession in decades has put the world in a soup, or an alphabet soup to be precise, feels Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
‘Economists used to tell us last year that the global economy will make a V-shaped recovery. That is, it will turnaround very quickly,’ he recalled opening the US-India CEO Forum with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton here Tuesday.
‘Then, I was told that it will be U-shaped recovery, meaning that it will stay at the bottom a little longer before recovering.
‘Recently, with the risk of a new crisis in Europe, experts are saying that it may be a W-shaped recovery,’ he said.
‘Frankly, I am beginning to feel that for every alphabet in the English language there is a theory of recovery,’ said an exasperated Mukherjee asking corporate leaders and policymakers alike to be careful and vigilant.
‘What so many competing theories of recovery mean, is, that we really do not know the answer. There is uncertainty concerning which way the global economy will go,’ he said.
‘We – be it the corporations or governments – have to be careful and vigilant.’
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
