Chennai: Right attitude and patience are needed to meet inflationary pressures, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said here Wednesday.

"The Indian economy will bounce back. We met the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, the foreign exchange reserve crisis in 1989-90, and even the 24 percent inflation crisis in 1979-80," he said at a function here.

"One must have the right attitude and be patient," Chidambaram added.

Attributing the across-the-board price rise to the increase in crude oil prices globally, the finance minister said increase in credit as well as money and capital flows at times resulted in embarrassments like inflation, which have to be tackled.

Chidambaram, who was here to lay the foundation stone for the Indian Bank's corporate office, said 1.2 million students have been given Rs.200 billion as education loans despite inflationary pressures.

Indian Bank chairman and managing director M.S. Sundara Rajan presented Chidambaram with two cheques - one for Rs.350 million towards dividend on preferential shares, and the other for Rs.1.37 billion towards equity dividend - as the government's share of dividend.