Ruble drops below 60 against Dollar for first time.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: It’s a close race, but the Indian Rupee, despite its steady fall, has for the first time surged past the Ruble in value against the Dollar.
The Indian rupee on Monday closed at an 11-month low of $62.95, as foreign investors started liquidating their emerging markets portfolio at the end of the calendar year, reported Mint. It was the lowest mark for the Rupee since January 27. The Rupee’s intra-day fall of 1.03% was sharpest since August 6.
The Rupee had opened at 62.51 a dollar and fell to 62.96 during the day. Currency dealers say the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stayed out of the market and did not sell dollars to check the rupee’s fall.
But the tumble of the Rupee pales in comparison to the fall of the Russian Ruble, which nosedived past 60 for the first time on record, losing 9.7 percent to 64.4455 a dollar. That extended its plunge this year to 49 percent, which overtook the Ukrainian hryvnia’s drop, reported Bloomberg.
Russia’s Central Bank on Monday raised its benchmark interest rate the most since the nation’s 1998 default, making the announcement in the middle of the night in Moscow as policy makers seek to douse investor panic and stem a ruble rout.
The central bank increased the key rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent effective today, it said in a statement on its website.