China, India to shield GE from U.S. slowdown-Immelt

SINGAPORE, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The head of General Electric Co (GE.N), the world's biggest industrial conglomerate, says a slowdown in the U.S. economy is unlikely to hit GE as the company would be shielded by the strength of emerging economies such as China and India.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Jeffrey Immelt said that in spite of the troubles sparked by the credit squeeze, "outside the U.S., particularly in China and India, economies appear strong".

"In the world as a whole, there is still a lot of liquidity," he added, saying there was every prospect of GE's sales outside the U.S. expanding in the next few years by 10-15 percent annually.

GE's chairman and chief executive said the company's sales in emerging markets such as China and India were growing at 20 percent a year, and there were few signs of this slowing.

Immelt said it was also important to take into account the impact of sovereign wealth funds, state-run bodies pumping large sums into the global economy and financing large acquisitions.

"The impact of sovereign wealth funds is considerable," he said. "Even in the U.S., if we assume there will be some slowing in the economy, the likelihood is that demand for the kinds of infrastructure-related items that we sell, such as medical scanners and power systems, will stay quite high.

"If you consider the problems in the credit markets, they will not have an impact on the vast majority of GE's business. In other words, the overall effect on GE will be limited," he said.