Rupee falls to record low level, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman defends

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said that the rupee has outperformed other emerging market currencies. The minister's remarks came days after the rupee fell to an all-time low of 82.69. Talking about the decline of the Indian currency, Sitharaman said that it is due to the strengthening of the dollar. He said that the rupee is not depreciating."I will not see it as a fall in the rupee, but as a continuing strengthening of the dollar," the finance minister said in a press briefing during her US visit.

#WATCH | USA: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam responds to ANI question on the value of Indian Rupee dropping against the Dollar as geo-political tensions continue to rise, on measures being taken to tackle the slide pic.twitter.com/cOF33lSbAT

— ANI (@ANI) October 16, 2022

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was focusing on ensuring that there is not too much volatility, and there is no market intervention to recover the value of the Indian currency.

Addressing the International Monetary Finance Committee (IMFC) on Friday, Sitharaman said, "India's foreign exchange reserves stood at $ 537.5 billion as of 23 September 2022, which is better than other equivalent economies. The change in valuation due to the strengthening of the US dollar has contributed to two-thirds of the decline in this stock.

According to a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as of September 30, India's foreign exchange reserves fell by $ 4.854 billion to $ 532.664 billion. According to this report, the reason for the decline in reserves during the week ended 30 September is due to the reduction in foreign currency assets (FCAs), which constitute a major share in the total reserves.

Nirmala Sitharaman said imported high inflationary pressures still pose a risk to the future trajectory of inflation at the domestic level. In this, the US dollar becoming increasingly expensive has an important role to play. Inflation has remained above the upper tolerance level of 6 per cent since January 2022, he said.