Indian rupee set to return near pre-Covid-19 levels by March, says Nomura

The Indian rupee is set to recover by March to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to a rare current account surplus and expectations that the central bank may be more tolerant of a stronger currency, according to Nomura Holdings Inc.

Nomura expects the rupee to bounce back to 72 per dollar by end-March, a level last seen in February. It sees sluggish oil prices to act as a tailwind for the net oil-importing nation, setting it on course to record its first current-account surplus since 2004.

“We see the rupee as an outperformer versus other high yielders,” said Dushyant Padmanabhan,