Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar on Thursday on account of increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. Further, weakness in the dollar against some other currencies overseas, after the US Federal Reserve reaffirmed the outlook for more rate hikes this year, too supported the rupee. The Fed kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent last night, but noted that inflation was nearing its 2 percent target rate after years of remaining undesirably low. The US central bank is gradually tightening credit to control inflation against the backdrop of a tight job market, a resilient economy and a pickup in consumer prices. On the global front, the dollar traded below a four-month high against a basket of currencies on Thursday, with the focus shifting to economic data after the Federal Reserve did little to alter market expectations for further interest rate rises this year.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 66.57, stronger by 8 paise from its previous close of 66.65 on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.6200 and 66.5225 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.66 and for Euro stood at 80.00 on May 2, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 60.71, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 90.66. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
| Date | 1US$ | 1GBP |
| May 02, 2018 | 66.6636 | 90.6625 |
| April 27, 2018 | 66.7801 | 92.8911 |
(RBI-Reference Rate)
