Despite dip, rupee relatively stable - RBI's Rajan

By Jonathan Spicer

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The depreciation of the rupee is due in part to the U.S. dollar's strength and it has fallen less, and in a less volatile fashion, than other currencies, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday.

While the rupee has slid against the strengthening dollar, he told a New York audience, "it has actually strengthened against other countries."

"The Indian press is all about rupee depreciation ... But if you look at the rupee's volatility relative to other currencies, you'd have to argue that the rupee has been one of the most stable currencies (against) the dollar," Rajan said.

"It's been much stronger than other currencies."

After long outperforming other emerging market currencies, the rupee has started to sag in part due to perceptions of delays in reforms under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was elected a year ago.

The central bank has so far done little to halt the rupee's slide to 20-month lows against the dollar, a sign that Rajan wants to save ammunition in case a pending U.S. interest-rate hike worsens volatility.

Rajan called the government's spending cuts "significant," adding that "there has been some amount of fiscal consolidation over and above what the government is owning up to."

Inflation, he said, "has come down tremendously in India."

(Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)