Rupee declines 9 paise to 82.05 against dollar amid geopolitical worries
The Hindu
Rupee retreated from early highs amid volatile stock markets and touched a low of 82.05 in afternoon trade at the interbank foreign exchange market
The rupee declined by 9 paise to close at 82.04 (provisional) against the U.S. dollar on June 26 amid geopolitical concerns and firming crude oil prices.
Volatility in equity markets and FII outflows also weighed on the market sentiment, analysts said.
After opening lower, the rupee staged a recovery to hit the day’s high of 81.94 in morning trade amid early gains in equities and a weaker greenback in the overseas markets.
However, the local currency retreated from early highs amid volatile stock markets and touched a low of 82.05 in afternoon trade at the interbank foreign exchange market.
The rupee closed at the day’s low level of 82.05, showing a loss of 9 paise over the previous close of 81.96 against the US dollar.
Analysts said that geopolitical concerns after a short-lived armed rebellion in Russia eroded the appeal of riskier assets.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, eased 0.15% to 102.75.
The Union Budget unveiled on February 1, 2025, has come at a time of unprecedented global uncertainty and a flagging domestic economy. The real GDP growth is estimated at 6.4% for 2024-25 and between 6.3-6.8% for 2025-26, a far cry from >8 percent growth required annually to make India a developed nation by 2047. While much attention has been devoted to the demand stimulus through income tax cuts, not enough is said about the proposed reforms in urban development, tariff rationalisation, and regulatory simplification aimed at making Indian cities and corporates more competitive. Since the majority of economic activity is located in cities (urban areas account for ~55% of GDP) and produced by large corporates (~40% of the national output and 55% of India’s exports), the above-mentioned reforms have a pivotal role in improving India’s trend growth rate. Below we unpack each reform.