'Rupee Will Find Its Own Level'

Finance minister Yashwant Sinha yesterday expressed confidence that the rupee would find its own level against the dollar and put the ball in the Reserve Bank's court saying that any step to check the fall of the rupee was up to the central bank.

"It is entirely futile to fight the market, but we will certainly fight speculation. The RBI will do whatever is needed to ensure that the market does not run away with the rupee. We will take appropriate steps," Sinha said at a meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry in New Delhi.

 

Insisting that there was no need to panic, the finance minister observed that the traders appeared to be getting over their blues. According to the finance minister, the pressure on the rupee was a result of the global economic scenario marked by the South East Asian currency crisis and the plunging yen and fears of currency devaluation by China.

Sinha said: "If you know the arrangement under which the value of the rupee is determined against external currencies, you won't have to take a deliberate decision to devalue."