Commerce ministry closely watching Eurozone events

NEW DELHI: Commerce minister Anand Sharma has said though the ongoing Greek and Eurozone woes are unlikely to have any direct impact on the country's economy, his ministry is closely monitoring the developments in the largest trading partner.

"I do not foresee any major impact (of the Greek crisis on our economy), but we are surely following the recovery in Europe with much interest," Sharma told PTI.

The ministry would like to follow the European crisis closely as it does not want exporters to again face the hardships they had faced in in 2008 and 2009 following the global financial meltdown, which began with the fall of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

However, exporters say the developments in Europe has already started impacting them a bit. "Because of the Greek crisis, the euro has weakened and buyers are a little hesitant about placing orders," Federation of Indian Export Organisations president A Sakthivel has said.

Europe is the country's largest trading partner accounting for about USD 100 billion and it is feared that the Greek debt crisis can spread to other nations in the continent. The Eurozone crisis could be a big dampener for the country's exports, which are on a recovery path since November 2009.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had also expressed similar concerns.