New Delhi (Sputnik): Despite the Indian government pulling the brakes on the import of "non-essential items" in a bid to reduce India's current account deficit, the rupee was not able to hold the gain it had struck last weekend when the markets reopened Monday morning.
READ MORE: Currency Notes Pose Health Hazards, Indian Traders Demand Govt. Intervention
Indian Rupee Volatility Exceeds Emerging-Market Peers via @business
— Nivi (@nivie) September 17, 2018
"The rupee is Asia’s biggest loser this year, dropping more than 11 percent versus the U.S. dollar." pic.twitter.com/WDE8h2UOjG
"Dollar outflows, trade wars, and high global crude oil prices have hit India despite strong fundamentals," Arun Jaitley, India's minister of finance said on Friday night after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the economic review. Jaitley added that a falling rupee had hurt the current account deficit and that it needed to be dealt with "immediately."
Govt measures to stem rupee decline doesn't seem to have worked as markets not impressed.The rupee weakened again today. Market feels the measures were underwhelming as expectation was created of much bigger steps. Expectation management rather poor!
— M K Venu (@mkvenu1) September 17, 2018
Meanwhile, most of the brokerage houses seemed unimpressed with the government's measures. According to media reports, international brokerage house Citi said that it will not be surprised if USD/INR tries to test the earlier high as a knee-jerk reaction.
