The story of the rupee’s movements following the war in Ukraine is more about India’s resilience and stability despite the unrelenting strengthening of the US dollar rather than a story of weakness, said Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das.
Das made the remarks in his inaugural address at the Annual FIBAC 2022 conference organised jointly by industry body FICCI and IBA on Wednesday. “On a financial year basis, almost all major currencies – barring a few like the Swiss franc, the Singapore dollar, the Russian rubble and the Indonesian rupiah – have depreciated against the US dollar by more than the INR,” Das said.
The rupee has depreciated by 8.0 per cent in the financial year 2022-23. Over the same period, the US dollar has appreciated by 13.0 per cent.
Das said this holds true even on a calendar year basis as the rupee has depreciated by 9.8 per cent whereas the US dollar has appreciated by 15.8 per cent.
Recently, movements in the exchange rate of the rupee have been the subject of discussion for many, including the media.
“Talk of unidirectional downward descent and the RBI’s defence is dominating the narrative in the public space. It is, therefore, important to address the issue free of emotions and fully loaded with the facts,” he opined while speaking about the exchange rate of the rupee.
On global headwinds, he said no country can be immune to such developments but it is the strength of India’s macro-fundamentals that has stood out in comparison with peers, bearing testimony to prudent macroeconomic policies and the resilience of the buffers it had built up. (ANI)
