FM on mission to curb rupee slide
New Delhi, Aug. 8: Finance minister P. Chidambaram is likely to unveil next week more measures to support rupee which had hit alltime low of 61.80 against dollar, a top official hinted on Thursday.
“I think you should wait till the end of the week the finance minister will be talking about this later,” economic afairs secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters in reply to a question. He was asked whether the government would come out with more measures to support rupee.
Meanwhile, the rupee on Thursday recovered from all- time closing low, adding 42 paise to end at 60.88 amid expectations the government would announce fresh steps to support the local currency. It had closed a record low of 61.30 against dollar yesterday. Earlier on August 6, the domestic unit had tumbled to life- time low of 61.80 intra- day. RBI has taken slew of measures in the past couple of weeks to contain rupee depreciation.
The currency has lost 12 per cent since April this year due to sustained capital outflows. The burgeoning current account deficit, which touched alltime 4.8 per cent during last fiscal, is also weighing heavily on the local currency.
The decline of the rupee to previous record low of 61.21 against the dollar on July 8 prompted the RBI to take a series of unconventional measures to curtail liquidity and curb speculation.