A senior Ingram Micro Europe exec has said that the channel is paying too much attention to fears of an economic downturn.

Instead, said Johan Vandenbussche, vice president of the firm's pan-European business unit, keeping its chin up and taking a positive outlook should help the channel swerve any recession.

Vandenbussche told El Reg that companies have been quick to leap onto the credit crunch bandwagon.

He said: "I don't want to accept what's being said in US papers and elsewhere, if we start talking so much about a recession eventually we'll make it happen. We need to get out of this negative thinking."

Vandenbussche reckons that far from putting a cap on spending and battening down the hatches, businesses should be working hard to develop their strategies and push up investment.

In September last year, rival distie Computer 2000 (C2000) said it had dished out an extra £4m in credit to the channel.

Asked if Ingram Micro would be doing anything similar, Vandenbussche wrote off C2000's move as "simply a marketing stunt".

Vandenbussche dismissed the prospect of credit drying up in the channel, saying that Ingram Micro works on a case-by-case basis with resellers offering up a "tailor-made" financing system.

"If we are doing the right things we believe we can come through this period without a problem," Vandenbussche said. "I don't believe the worst test is still to come... The UK has a strong economy and we need to keep it so." ®