Indian rupee ended marginally lower against US dollar on Wednesday, due to fresh demand for the American currency from banks and importers. Traders remained concerned with report that a private investment bank has downgraded India’s economic forecasts from 8% to 7.6% for Financial Year 2018-19. It, however, retained growth forecast for FY20 at 8.3%. The investment bank lowered the growth projection in the wake of multi-billion banking scam and warned that it could spark tighter regulation of the banking sector that would constrain credit growth. However, dollar’s weakness overseas along with gains in the local equity markets, limited the further slide of local unit. On the global front, dollar pulled back from three-week highs on Wednesday as traders took some profits ahead of the Federal Reserve’s first expected rate rise of 2018 and focused on whether the central bank will indicate three or four hikes for this year.
Finally, the rupee ended at 65.21, 2 paise weaker from its previous close of 65.19 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 65.23 and 65.19 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 65.21 and for Euro stood at 79.96 on March 21, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.28, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 91.32. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
