Global economic crisis will take more than a year to unravel: Tharman

Speaking to Bloomberg Television on Thursday, Mr Tharman , Singapore's Finance Minister, says the world has yet to see the worst of the downturn, as banks are still in contraction mode and focused on recapitalisation, rather than lending.

He said, "The foreign banks are still in the mode of contraction. I think every large global bank is still looking at building up its capital, much more than it’s looking at extending new loans. So we are still at that phase of the crisis where recapitalisation is still the priority and estimates of the extent of bad assets on their books are still on the upswing. So, we haven’t seen the worst yet."