Basu, who till recently was the chief economic advisor to the Indian government, assumed the new post on Monday.
"It's not doing well. It's a very difficult phase, and the difficult phase will live with us for a while," Basu told the Wall Street Journal on his thoughts about the global economy, in an interview.
According to him, the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007 and 2008 in the US, exposed another problem -- the construction of the euro zone.
"This is no one's fault. The construction of the euro zone is one of the biggest human-made experiments of a system being brought into place. It's a gigantic experiment. It's not surprising that some fault lines would show up," Basu noted.
The persisting European sovereign debt turmoil is hurting the world economy, which is on a fragile recovery path.
"In today's world, the global economy is becoming one economy. These are problems
