The Indian rupee has depreciated by 30 paise to 71.77 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday, amid weak industrial output numbers, which recorded an eight-year low earlier this week.
The rupee opened at 71.75 against the US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange. It further slipped to 71.77.
The Indian Index of Industrial Production (IIP) or, factory output, for the month of September, contracted by 4.3 per cent.
The IIP had seen a contraction of 1.4% in August this year. This is its weakest performance in seven years due to the decline in manufacturing, mining and electricity sectors, according to the latest government statistics released on Monday.
India’s macroeconomic outlook remains grim with the country's largest public-sector lender, State Bank of India predicting a sub 5% gross domestic product growth in the second quarter of the current financial year in a report released on Tuesday.
“We expect second quarter GDP growth at 4.2 percent,” the report said, while terming the decline in September IIP by 4.3 percent as “quite alarming”.
The rupee had declined against the dollar on Monday, after rating agency Moody’s downgraded India's outlook last week.
