Indian rupee continued its upward momentum for the second day on Wednesday on persistent selling of the American currency by exporters. Traders took some support with NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that India's slowdown has bottomed out and now its economy needs to be opened up if the country wants to realise the ambition of a 10 per cent growth rate. He said in the next fiscal year, India's GDP growth is expected to be 6 per cent and then it will get back to 7-8 per cent which has been the case in the last 15-16 year period. Some optimism also came with Commerce minister Piyush Goyal's statement that India and the US can finalise a larger trade deal much fast and expressed hope that the bilateral trade target of $500 billion is certainly achievable target in the next five years. However, strengthening of the American currency vis-a-vis other currencies overseas along with losses in the domestic equity market kept the gain in rupee in check. On the global front, dollar recovered from a two-week low on Wednesday as investors reduced expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will signal more policy easing as a deadly virus spread quickly outside China.
The last traded price of rupee was 71.66, 19 paise stronger from its previous close of 71.85 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 71.79 and 71.59 respectively. The reference rate for the dollar stood at 71.85 and for Euro stood at 78.00 on February 25, 2020. While the reference rate for the Yen stood at 64.82, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 92.97.
