India: Rupee approaches all time low in February

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.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panellists expect the rupee to end FY 2016 at 67.9 INR per USD. For FY 2017, the panel projects the INR to trade at 67.8 per USD.