Sailesh K. Jha, Singapore-based head of Asia markets strategy at Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, comments on the outlook for the Indian rupee. “A good buying opportunity for the rupee would be 44.90- 45.10 per dollar because it would likely trade back to 44 in the next few weeks. “On a three-month horizon our forecast is 43.50 to 43.72,” he said. “Unless we get some shock from the payrolls numbers tonight in the U.S. or Tuesday’s China data for July, then I think we should start seeing some stabilization in the financial markets globally in the near term. “The rupee will underperform other Asian currencies at least over three months due to concerns related to the high current-account deficit and in terms of risks related to the fiscal front, where the government seems to be on a path of maintaining its policy of a loose stance, and also because in my view the central bank has a lot more to do in terms of hiking the repo rate.” Jha predicts the Reserve Bank of India will raise the repurchase rate to 9 percent by the end of March from the current 8 percent. Three-month non-deliverable forwards dropped 0.6 percent to 45.26 per dollar as of 12:25 p.m. in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The contracts reflect bets the rupee will drop 1 percent from the spot rate of 44.79. To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Jeanette Rodrigues in Mumbai at jrodrigues26@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net

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