Indian rupee ended marginally lower against US dollar on Tuesday, due to fresh demand for the American currency from banks and importers. Traders remained concerned with Bibek Debroy’s statement that India’s net exports are not doing well even as the global economy is on the recovery path. Debroy further highlighted that India is facing a dilemma from the point of view of pushing exports, as exporters would like exchange rate to depreciate, however exchange rate might not depreciate as much as exporters want because of capital inflows. Moreover, the domestic currency was also weighed down by dollar's strengthen against some other currencies overseas. On the global front, dollar moved firmly higher on Tuesday, shaking off earlier weakness as attention shifted from the positive Brexit developments to the Federal Reserve meeting where rate setters are widely expected to tighten policy.
Finally, the rupee ended at 65.19, 2 paise weaker from its previous close of 65.17 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 65.24 and 65.15 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 65.19 and for Euro stood at 80.46 on March 20, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.33, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 91.49. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
