Indian Rupee has remained highly volatile this year and even breached the 83 versus dollar mark against the US Dollar in October. However, the currency has remained strong among other major currencies, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated once again.
“The Indian Rupee has been strong against every currency. Reserve Bank has used foreign exchange reserves that it has to intervene in the market to make sure that the Dollar-Rupee fluctuation does not go too much,” Sitharaman said in response to a question in Lok Sabha.
She added that the central bank has net sold $33.4 billion in available foreign exchange reserves in the first half of the current fiscal to save the rupee from volatility.
The exchange rate of the rupee had hit a record low of Rs 83.2 against the dollar on October 20.
FM Sitharaman further added that amid global geopolitical tensions and inflation, central banks across the world undertook interest rate hikes. The dollar strengthened by 7.8 per cent in FY23 (till November 30) but rupee depreciated 6.9 per cent in the same period, Sitharaman highlighted.
Rupee has performed better than most Asian peer currencies, including the Chinese renminbi (10.6 per cent), Indonesian rupiah (8.7 per cent), Philippine peso (8.5 per cent), South Korean won (8.1 per cent) and Taiwanese dollar (7.3 per cent), the FM noted.
Not just the FM, but the World Bank too had last week said that the rupee fared relatively well in 2022 in comparison to other emerging market peers. World Bank Senior Economist Dhruv Sharma praised India as it did not fare badly compared to other emerging markets and said that Indian Rupee has depreciated by just about 10 per cent over the course of this year.
“India is more resilient now than it was 10 years ago. All steps taken over the past 10 years are helping India navigate the global headwinds,” he added.
