Thursday, August 23, 2018

Ruminating over the magic figure of Rupees 70 plus...Paper under publication


Abstract of the paper entitled:The recent rupee dollar slide August 2018.

Right from September 1949 devaluation of rupee(which was a follow up to British devaluation of pound sterling),through June ,6,1966 and july 1991 two stage devaluation of rupee(both necessitated by major economic crisis, the rupee has undergone a secular depreciation in line with economic fundamentals, with occasional  bout of currency appreciation(under the impact of capital flows) which RBI used to  resist for the fear of  losing competitiveness of export sector. For more than three years the rupee has been shuttling between66 and 69 per USD and in mid august 2018 it crashed to historic low of 70 plus close on the heels of massive depreciation of Turkish lira. However  for the fall and fall of rupee besides  hardening of the USD and firming up of oil price, widening of current account deficit, difficult to finance  (as outflow is more than the inflow) is mostly responsible. It is felt by experts  the range 70-72 is the right level .The current  rupee problem is a classic combination 50: 50 interplay between domestic and external  factors –a kind of cocktail .It is time the government realized ,the  dependence on foreign capital for financing CAD , perpetually, is fraught with dangerous consequence especially when the dollar is strong and panic pervades  the world financial markets..

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