Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar on Monday amid reports that the US could announce a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports later in the day, even though the government announced steps to arrest the sliding currency. The government announced steps to check non-essential imports and promote exports in order to arrest the decline in rupee, check the widening current account deficit and relaxing norms for raising overseas borrowing. The steps were announced after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to assess the prevailing issues in Indian economy. Further, weak trading of domestic equity markets too added pressure on rupee. On the global front, the dollar rose against a basket of major currencies, with investors cautiously awaiting news on the implementation of US tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 72.65, weaker by 79 paise from its previous close of 71.86 on Friday. The currency touched a high and low of 72.69 and 72.4575 respectively. The reference rate for the dollar stood at 71.81 and for Euro stood at 83.97 on September 14, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 64.19, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 94.15. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
