Economic slump has not impacted hiring opportunities for chartered accountants in the country as 2,000 of them are expected to be recruited through campus placements this year, accounting regulator ICAI said today.

The average salary expected to be offered to candidates is estimated to range between Rs 6-7 lakh per annum almost the same as year-ago, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said.

ICAI is expecting nearly 2,000 candidates, who have completed their chartered accountancy this year, to be offered jobs through the campus placement programme this year.

About 1,500 candidates were offered jobs during ICAI's campus placement programme in 2012.

"We expect strong response from Indian corporate sector despite the current spell of slowdown," ICAI President Subodh Kumar Agrawal said here.

According to him, as many as 8,000 students qualified for accountancy in July of which nearly 5,000 have registered for campus placement for August-September. The rest have found jobs through direct recruitment.

This is the second round of placement programme by ICAI after February-March. Nearly 900 candidates were offered jobs in February-March period and the average salary offered was Rs 7.11 lakh, per annum.

In programme for August-September, ITC has offered Rs 16 lakh annual salary -- the highest among the other companies which have participated, Agrawal said.

Over 50 companies including Bharti Infratel, Cairn India, Coca-Cola India, Engineers India, Genpact, HCL, Lanco Tata Consultancy Service have participated in the recruitment programme in August-September.

However, Agrawal noted that the number of companies this year is fewer compared to last year as none of the public sector units including banks have participated.

He said the best response for recruitment this year has been received from the IT sector.

The placement programme is been held in 16 centres across the country.