Plunging rupee may hurt Modi just before state and national polls
THE rupee’s plunge to a record low has worried a wide cross-section of India’s society: companies, importers, those going on vacation and students planning to study overseas.
But if the weakness persists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s job could become a lot harder just before big state and national elections.
India is a big buyer of everything from crude oil and electronics to gold and edible oil, and its import bill was expected to cross $600 billion (R8.7 trillion) in the fiscal year ending in March 2019, from about $565bn in the previous year.
The 9.3 percent fall in the rupee this year has led to a surge in local prices of goods with an imported component.
July was the ninth straight month in which India’s inflation was higher than the central bank’s medium-term target of 4 percent.
The currency fell to a fresh low of 70.40 to the dollar yesterday.
“The sharp rupee depreciation has come as a shock for us,” said Kamal Singh, 50, a senior government official in Delhi visiting family in the US.
“Now I will have to spend at least 10 000 rupees ($143) more on travel.”
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) considers urban middle-class Indians a key voting bloc, the segment most affected by the rupee slump.
The opposition Congress party has blamed the government’s policies for the rupee slump and called it an indication of weakness in the economy. Most political analysts agree that Modi does not yet face a significant challenge, but believe he will be hard put to repeat the BJP’s sweep of the 2014 general election.
Besides the next general election due by May, three big BJP-ruled states in India’s northern plains go to the polls over the next four months.
Satish Misra, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, said although the rupee slide was a result of several factors, it was affecting the image of the Modi government. “As prices shoot up and products become costlier, the middle-class will begin to get angry,” Misra said.
“Since the middle-class is the opinion maker, the BJP will suffer electorally.”
The government has said the depreciation is due to the economic woes in Turkey that has dragged down currencies of emerging market countries around the world.
“Recent developments relating to Turkey have generated global risk aversion towards emerging market currencies and the strengthening of the dollar,” said senior cabinet minister Arun Jaitley.
“However, India’s macro fundamentals remain resilient and strong.
“Developments are being monitored closely to address any situation that may arise in the context of the unsettled international environment.”
The rupee fall, however, benefits exporters such as software companies.
New Delhi-based Jindal Stainless said that as it is an importer of raw materials, the rupee depreciation would hurt the company.