At the Business Standard Smart Business panel discussion on ‘Strengthening of Rupee vs International Currency’ organised in association with Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), exporters, academics and economists spoke on various issues surrounding the debate on Indian currency movement and its impact on exports.
Devendra Kumar Pant, Chief Economist and Head - Public Finance, India Ratings & Research, said that the currency movements were in large measure due to global forces. “The decisions of central banks of major economies such as US and China have a significant bearing on the strengthening or weakening of the rupee,” he said.
R. K. Panigrahi, Director, MSME-DI, argued for the collection of more detailed data on the unorganized MSME sector to get an accurate understanding of the problems plaguing the sector in the current macro-economic environment.
Ajay Sahai, Director General & CEO, FIEO, said that one must also look at various other factors that impact export competitiveness such as logistic costs, ease of doing business and high transactions costs, in addition to the rupee.
B. B. Gandhi, Vice President, Emmsons International, said that exporters, especially in the MSME segment, lack the tools for risk management and currency hedging. Thus any sudden currency movement adversely impacts their bottom line.
Dr. Sabyasachi Saha, Assistant Professor at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a Delhi based think tank, talked about the impact of a slowdown in China and sluggish US demand on exports.
The panel discussion was followed by a question and answer session.
