Should they rename it the Droopee?
The Indian rupee hit a new all-time low against the US dollar on Wednesday, breaching 54.52 against the sawbuck. And though analysts say it's not headed for "freefall" -- despite plummeting more than 20 percent over the past 12 months -- nobody was very excited by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's halfhearted claims that some austerity measures are on the horizon. Result: the central bank looks more or less helpless to arrest the plunge.
As FirstPost.com reports, “The government has been only talking about fiscal consolidation but there are no steps at all, nothing being done to reduce the fiscal deficit,” said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at Bank of Baroda.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press quoted analysts as saying they expect the rupee to breach 55 to the dollar, while others suggested it could drop to 57 or 58 in the near future.
“It is very hard for the central bank to turn the currency around,” Robert Prior-Wandesforde, an economist for Credit Suisse in Singapore, told FirstPost. “Without doubt, the investors are looking for steps from the government in terms of structural reforms, be it in the form of news on goods and services tax or the direct tax code or some measures that might encourage infrastructure investments.”
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