Eurozone crisis may be over by Sept: Subbarao

The RBI governor hopes the crisi will be over before his term comes to an end

If RBI Governor D Subbarao's prediction is anything to go by, the Eurozone crisis is likely to be over with expiry of his term in September this year.

The global crisis and Eurozone crisis will end with the expiry of my term as RBI governor, Subbarao told his fellow alumni of IIT Kanpur in a lighter vein here today.

"People ask me when is this global financial crisis that is reeling for the last five years will be over. I have never answered the question but I am going to give the answer today," he said.

The RBI Governor, a 1972 batch IAS officer, said, "I was appointed Governor on September 5, 2008 and two weeks later the Lehman Brothers collapsed ... So there was an association with Subbarao becoming the Governor and the world economic crisis."

Subbarao further said, "So my term was initially for three years. So people thought when my term will be over, the crisis will be over because there was a co-relation between Subbarao and financial crisis."

And then in August 2011, he said the government renewed his term for two more years. "And two days after that Eurozone crisis happened. So again it established a co-relation. So, that is why eurozone crisis and the global crisis will be over when my term comes to an end," he said.

"Among group of friends and well wisher, I thought I should give exclusive answer (on when the global economic crisis will end)," he added.

Subbarao term as Governor of RBI comes to an end on September 4, 2013. Financial services firm Lehman Brothers had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008, triggering the global financial meltdown.  The filing remains the largest bankruptcy filing in the US history, with Lehman holding over $600 billion in assets.