Not too worried about current rupee value, says Raghuram Rajan

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today said the rupee's current level does not warrant any concern, even as he maintained the central bank will continue to intervene in the market by selling and buying dollars.

Stating that RBI does not deliberately target any particular level for the currency, Rajan also said RBI has started intervening in the currency futures market to stop any kind of arbitrage.

"We are using all the available instruments. Sometimes what happens is that you intervene in one particular instrument, but a gap builds up in another, and that creates the scope for arbitrage," he said.

Speaking to reporters from news agencies here, Rajan said, "I am not too worried about the value of the rupee at the current juncture. One can argue whether it should be a little stronger or a little weaker, but we do not have a policy of deliberately targeting a level for the rupee."

Today, rupee closed at 67.98 against the US dollar, against yesterday's closing level of 67.84.

Rajan said RBI has intervened in the market in the past few months by buying as well selling dollars in the market and will continue to do so in future as well.

"But we don't pick a level (of rupee) and say we need to go there because others (currencies) have moved. We let the markets direct us towards the level it wants," Rajan said.

As per the latest data, RBI in November made net purchase worth $15 million after it purchased $3.004 billion and sold $2.989 billion in the spot market.