Sinha expresses concern over fall in rupee against dollar

Expressing concern over weakening of the rupee against the US dollar, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha today said the Reserve Bank is vigilant to keep the Indian currency globally competitive.
"The rupee has been a very stable currency and in fact has appreciated against every other currency except the dollar, which means from a manufacturing competitiveness perspective that certainly is something that is causing us concern," Sinha said.
Speaking to Bloomberg TV India, he said the currency movement has to be monitored but 62-65 range "is a good zone to be in".
The rupee is currently trading at around 61.91 to a dollar.

"As of now, we have to find a zone for the rupee that prevents obviously inflation, etc in India, which is one of the things that we are concerned about, but at the same time does not push us out of the zone of competitiveness.
"Of course the RBI is very vigilant in these matters. We have to find a zone that enables us to be globally competitive and that in some ways is almost dynamic because things keep changing with the other currencies," Sinha said.
For the full 2014, the rupee has declined about 2 per cent against the US currency. This was the fourth year in a row that the rupee has lost ground. It had depreciated by over 11 per cent in 2013 and by more than 18 per cent in 2011. The decline was relatively smaller at about 3 per cent in 2012.