India: Rupee approaches all time low in February
February 23, 2016
The Indian rupee lost ground in recent months and closed 19 February at 68.5 INR per USD. The figure represented a 1.2% depreciation over the same day of the previous month and a 10.3% depreciation over the same day of last year. The result marks more than a two-and-a-half year low and the currency is approaching its all-time low of 68.8 tallied in August 2013.
The steady decline in value comes against a backdrop of global risk aversion trigged by concerns about the global economy. Heightened global uncertainty has put Indian stock markets under pressure and has led to a broad selloff of Indian stocks at the outset of 2016. In addition, strong demand for the U.S. dollar has fuelled the depreciation.