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According to Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, the story of the rupee’s movements following the conflict in Ukraine is more about India’s fortitude and stability in the face of the unrelenting rising of the US dollar than it is one of weakness.
The comments were made by Shaktikanta Das during his opening remarks at the Annual FIBAC 2022 conference on Wednesday, which was hosted by the business associations IBA and FICCI.
“On a financial year basis, almost all major currencies – barring a few like the Swiss franc, the Singapore dollar, the Russian rubble and the Indonesian rupiah – have depreciated against the US dollar by more than the INR,” Das said.
The rupee has lost 8.0% of its value in the fiscal year 2022–2023. The US dollar has increased by 13.0% throughout the same time frame.
According to Shaktikanta Das, this is true even when looking at a calendar year, as the rupee has declined by 9.8% while the US dollar has increased by 15.8%.
Recently, changes in the rupee’s exchange rate have drawn attention from many, including the media.
“Talk of unidirectional downward descent and the RBI’s defence is dominating the narrative in the public space. It is, therefore, important to address the issue free of emotions and fully loaded with the facts,” he said while speaking about the exchange rate of the rupee.
The robustness of India’s macro-fundamentals has stood out in comparison to peers, attesting to its prudent macroeconomic policies and the durability of the buffers it had built up, he said, adding that no country can be immune to such occurrences.
