MUMBAI – Amid re-ignited concerns over the macro-economic scenario in India and abroad, the rupee has again slipped below the 55-level against dollar, the largest fall among its major peers globally in the past 30 days.
As against the U.S. dollar, the rupee has sharply fallen from 52.88 levels one month ago to 55.16 on November 16, marking a drop of over 4.2 per cent.
This is the largest fall vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar in the past one month among 25 major currencies across Asia, Americas, Europe, the West Asia and Africa.
The rupee had closed at its life-time low of 57.12 against the U.S. dollar on June 22. In February, rupee had strengthened to as high as Rs 49.
Within Asia, the steep depreciation of rupee is followed by the Japanese yen, which has dropped around 2.9 per cent in the past one month. Among other Asian currencies, Singapore dollar has slipped 0.66 per cent, Malaysia’s ringgit by 0.6 per cent and Indonesia’s rupiah by 0.42 per cent.
On the other hand, China’s yuan has gained 0.45 per cent against the U.S. dollar, while Australia’s dollar has also appreciated by 0.37 per cent in the same period.
Recent economic data like exports, imports, balance of payments and deficit has been bad. There also have been intermittent withdrawals by the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the stock market.
“The recent worries over the U.S. economy have also not helped the rupee’s cause. A combination of these factors has dragged down our currency,” Dhanlaxmi Bank executive vice-president (treasury) Srinivasa Raghavan said.
Analysts also feel there has been an increase in speculative activity in the NDF (non-deliverable forward) forex segment.
