Mumbai,
May 22: The Indian rupee Tuesday slipped to 55.47 against a dollar,
hitting a fresh record low for the fifth session in a row, due to
increased demand for the American currency from oil firms and weak cues
from global markets.
The
Indian currency hit a record low of 55.47 against a dollar before
closing at 55.40 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market here.
The rupee had hit a low of 55.05 against a dollar in the intra-day trade Monday and closed at 55.03.
Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the fall was largely due to the
uncertainty in Eurozone and the government was taking steps to curb the
slide.
"The
government is taking a series of steps. However, managing rupee is
market-related. There is a lot of volatility," Mukherjee told
reporters.
The Indian currency has lost over 20 percent of its value against dollar since the beginning of this year.
Mukherjee said the Reserve Bank of India will intervene in the foreign exchange markets as and when required.
In the last few weeks the RBI has announced some steps to control the slide in the value of Indian currency.
The
RBI has asked banks to sell half of the foreign currencies in their
accounts. In a bid to attract money from overseas, the RBI has raised
interest ceiling that local banks can offer to overseas Indians in forex
accounts.
The
RBI has opened a direct dollar window for oil companies, which are
worst hit because of the weakness in the domestic currency as they have
to pay higher money for the same quantum of import.
Earlier
in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the finance
minister said the government has taken a number of steps to "augment
supply of foreign exchange to step stem rupee decline".
The
government's steps include liberalisation of External Commercial
Borrowings policy and portfolio investment norms, steps to improve
access to corporate bond market through infrastructure debt funds and
the RBI's initiatives to curb speculation in the forex markets.
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