Mumbai: The Indian rupee recovered a bit against the dollar after Union finance minister P. Chidambaram assured the Parliament that fiscal deficit for the current fiscal will be contained at 4.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), below the original target of 4.8%. The rupee was trading at 61.9550 per dollar at 11.25am, up from 62.02 a dollar at 11.14am when the finance minister started his interim budget speech. The rupee had opened the session at 61.97 a dollar, but depreciated ahead of the interim budget announcement. The GDP growth for the fiscal was seen at 4.9%, Chidambaram said in his speech. The finance minister also said the current fiscal will see accretion of $15 billion in the country’s foreign exchange reserve. Foreign exchange reserves for the fortnight ended 7 February stood at $292.3 billion. India’s equity benchmark BSE Sensex was trading at 20,415 points, up 0.24%, or 43 points from its previous close. Before the speech, Sensex was trading at 20,373.21 points. Yields on the 10-year bond fell to 8.782% from 8.792% before the speech and Friday’s close of 8.809%. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 80.033, down 0.13% from the previous close of 80.136.

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