“Rupee is not weakened, dollar is strengthening”: FM Sitharaman in US

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the rupee has not weakened but it is the dollar that has strengthened, as she defended the 8 per cent slide in the value of Indian currency against the greenback this year.

While attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, she asserted that the fundamentals of the Indian economy were strong and that inflation was low compared to other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, the rupee settled at 82.35 against the US dollar on Friday, having touched another record low of 82.68 on Monday after which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to have intervened. Some analysts say the central bank may have spent nearly USD 100 billion in the past year to defend the rupee.