Singh, a former finance minister credited with starting the process of opening up India's economy to the world in the 1990s, said that India, like other developing countries, was experiencing the "ripple effect" of the worst financial crisis in nearly 80 years and that it "must be prepared for a temporary slowdown."

But the country faced no risk to its banking sector as in developed nations where some countries like Britain, Germany and Spain have been forced to bail out banks and restore confidence in their financial systems. India's tightly regulated banks were financially sound and well capitalised, he said.

Singh noted the most "pessimistic estimates" projected India's economic growth for the year to March 2009 at "no less than seven percent" after the economy grew by nine percent or more for the three previous years.