Indian rupee continues slide, touches record low
New Delhi, May 9 (EFE).- The Indian rupee on Monday dropped to a new all-time low, trading at over 77.4 rupees per United States Dollar in international currency markets, continuing its depreciation trend from the last four years.
This is the rupee’s lowest value since March, when it had touched the price of 77.02 units per USD.
Rupee’s devaluation had so far been attributed to rising oil prices and the instability caused by the Ukraine war, but now a stronger dollar has contributed to a further slump in the Indian currency.
The resilience of the US labor market recently helped the Federal Reserve aggressively increase its interest rates to check inflation.
As per Indian consultancy IFA global, the slump in rupee follows a drop in India’s foreign currency reserves.
“Lately due to global uncertainty, the Reserve Bank of India has been protecting the rupee levels which has led to a drop in India’s forex reserve. As per RBI data, India’s forex reserves decreased to $600.42 billion in the week ended 22nd April from $617.65 billion in the week ended 25th March,” the IFA said.
Rupee has already been weak since the beginning of 2022 after four years of an uninterrupted slide and many experts had predicted it to drop to its lowest point by the middle of this year.
The Indian currency has continued to depreciate since Jan. 1, 2018, when it stood at 63.85 rupees per USD, having lost 17 percent of its value since then as per Monday’s figures. EFE
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