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Google says it will be able to survive any global economic slow down because of its broad base of advertisers.

Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google Inc
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Eric Schmidt, chief executive, admitted that the credit crunch in financial markets, a long with dipping stock markets was a "very serious issue." "It's too early to say if there's (already) been any specific impact but if there were I don't think it would be much," Schmidt told reporters during a visit to Sydney.

"We believe that if there were (a U.S. recession), we'll be well positioned. We're not particularly dependent on any particular one market. There's not a lot of advertising for any one market over another," he said.

His comments come after the news earlier this month that Google's growth rate looked to be slowing as the number of users clicking through to ads dropped in January.

Direct marketing, a forerunner to online marketing, had traditionally done well in times of recession. "There tends to be a flight in a global slowdown to higher quality advertising and higher quality advertising is determined by what sells," he said.

Schmidt also said that the growth in Asian markets will benefit the company. "One of the very good sources for Google is the very rapid growth in Asia," he said.