No need to give knee-jerk reaction to falling Re: FM

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday held global factors responsible for the rupee fall and said there was no need for India, the world’s fastest growing economy, to panic or give a knee-jerk reaction on the falling rupee vis-a-vis the US dollar.

“We must bear in mind that dollar has strengthened against almost every currency. The rupee has either consistently strengthened or remained in a range, not weakened. Most of the other currencies of the world,compared to what it was 4-5 years ago, rupee is better off,” Jaitley said.

“If you look at the domestic economic situation and global situation, there are not domestic reasons attributable to this, but all reasons are global,” the finance minister added.

Jaitley expressed hope that the Reserve Bank of India was doing whatever was necessary to manage the currency and that the fluctuation in the rupee would soon come down.

Rupee, which has fallen nearly 11% so far this year, has been Asia's worst performing currency. The continuous fall in the rupee has come as a rude shock for importers who, according to analysts are rushing for longer maturity cover for overseas payments.