India's economic strategy blunted global financial meltdown: Pranab

PUNE: The Centre's economic strategy has blunted the impact of current global financial downturn, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said today.

Referring to the world economic crisis, he said "India's strategy helped us to come out substantially unhurt" even if not completely insulated.

Mukherjee, who was speaking after being honoured with the 2009 Lokmanya Tilak award here, said nobody would have imagined that the mighty US economy would be plunged into a crisis of such magnitude being witnessed at present.

"What should have remained confined to US banking system resulted in a global crisis," he added.

The Finance Minister noted that India's banking system rested on a sound footing following the nationalisation effected years ago.

On the contrary, the bail-out packages in industrialised countries were being used to revive their banking sector, he added.