Economy will be back on rails in six months: Gates

Global Recession

Recession will continue for more than six months: Bill Gates

However the impact of slow down to global economy will be is temporary

Idhries Ahmad

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, expects US economy to reel under global financial slow down for more than six months. However, Gates hopes, the rapid economic advancements made by emerging economies like China and India in last decade will see to it that slow down impact is temporary.

"There is no doubt that there is going to be economic crisis in the US. There are imbalances in the US and economy will have weakness," said Gates.

"I can not predict whether the financial crisis will be two years or three years, but it will be more than six month and then the economy will get back on track" forecasted Gates.

Gates is currently on a visit to India to promote anti-polio and other healthcare efforts, undertaken by his charitable foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in the country.

Addressing the packed gathering here at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gates however sounded confident in his assessment that global economy has changed enough to ward of crisis resulting from meltdown in the housing market and heavy consumer debt.

"If you look at the world and US economy since 1990, the results have been really phenomenal. The fact that India has liberalized and grown its economy.. The fact that China is now a global player. The world economy benefits from this scale, being able to trade products and being able to collaborate with brilliant minds", said Gates

"It won’t be a long term impact. Microsoft takes 5-10 year’s view and is not cutting back on it research. The benefits of these researches will be delivered on time,” added Gates.

"Even though we are going to have a little bit of challenge in the US, we are not going to erase the policy maps the we have made, nor are we going to stop from going back on the map” added Gates

“I think markets have overreacted. There is no doubt that the US is in somewhat of an economic recession but it doesn’t need to extend to other markets". he added

On US elections

Commenting on US elections, Gates said he pleased the way US elections have generated such interest worldwide and expected new president would try out new approaches to tackle global problems like terrorism and global warming.

‘There is always freshness in US elections. People are excited with new administration,” I believe US president can make a big difference in reaching out, whether it is in research or reaching out for tacking global problems of terrorism and global warming"

Talking about their research projects here, Gates said that in their research laboratory here - half of whose staff are from the IITs - developed a medium through which the farming community can benefit.

©CIOL Bureau