The premier Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad saw a 25 per cent drop in the average compensation package offered to its final-year post-graduate programme students in this year's placements, conducted over nine days from February 25 to March 5.

The average yearly salary for domestic offers stood at Rs 12.17 lakh and international offers at $83,000. Last year, the average offered by domestic companies was Rs 17.85 lakh -- a 30 per cent jump from Rs 13.7 lakh in 2007, and the average international salary offered was $1,19,000.

"The last time IIM-A saw such a decline was in 2001 during the dot.com bust," said Samir Barua, director of IIM-A, but declined to discuss details of the compensation packages.

He added, however, that all the students, except those who had opted out of placements, have been placed.Barua said that around 85 per cent of the recruiters were domestic firms. Last year,international firms accounted for 35 per cent of the recruiters.

"We were surprised to see finance still ruling the roost during the placements this year, at 39 per cent. The decision of over 100 students to opt for jobs in the financial sector reflects that the choice of students is based on a long-term career choice," Barua said.

The highest number of offers on campus were made by the Union Bank of India (18 offers). Twelve students were recruited by Jaypee Capital, a first-time recruiter on campus -- for managing their operations in financial and capital markets.