Mumbai: The Indian rupee plunged to a fresh record low of over 74 to a US dollar on Friday late afternoon, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintained its key benchmark lending rates.
Just after the RBI announced its decision, post 2.30 pm, the rupee plunged to over 74 a US dollar — the lowest ever mark — it has touched against the greenback.
It opened the day’s trade at the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange Market at 73.64 (73.6375) to a dollar from its previous close of 73.58.
The RBI belied market expectations of a rate hike, which was expected to arrest the free fall in the rupee’s value.
As per the RBI’s fourth bi-monthly monetary policy statement, the key lending rates have been kept intact on the back of an uncertain global economic scenario.
The policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) remained unchanged at 6.5 per cent.
The government welcomed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decision to keep its key benchmark lending rates unchanged, but disagreed with the monetary policy committee’s (MPC) growth forecast.
It said the economic growth should be higher than the 7.4 per cent projected by the MPC.
“Government welcomes MPC statement and decision to keep the rates unchanged. Government’s assessment of inflation is in line with the MPC’s assessment. We believe growth should turn out to be higher than that projected by MPC,” Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said tweeted.