“I have been waiting and hoping for the rupee to recover so that I can exchange it for some dollars, which I can keep as funds supplementary to my grant amount. But I guess it’s just bad timing and since I can’t wait anymore, I’m having to incur major forex losses,” Khurana said, while exchanging the battered Indian currency against the greenback at one of South Delhi’s popular money changers on Thursday evening.
The rupee on Friday breached the 71-mark for the first time against the dollar, hitting a fresh low.
Khurana is not the only one who finds herself at the receiving end of the rupee rout. Chennai-based journalist Preeti Zachariah who recently took a break from her job to pursue a masters program at an Ivy League college in the US, too, is staring at her expenses shoot higher up than she had expected, thanks to the strengthening dollar.
“My overall fee and expenses have gone up by around 10 per cent from what I anticipated when I opted to study. While I've been lucky enough to have gotten a generous scholarship, housing and living expenses have been adding up considerably. Really hope that it stabilises soon,” Zachariah told TOI from New York.
The weakening of the rupee over the last few days has been attributed to month-end dollar demand from importers, by currency watchers. The rupee has also been under pressure following global cues.
"Globally, the Turkish lira and Chinese offshore yuan is putting currencies under pressure.The other negative is rally in crude oil which indirectly hurts sentiment and fiscal stability," Sanjiv Bhasin, executive VP-Markets & Corporate Affairs, India Infoline had told TOI on Thursday.
The rupee has been Asia’s worst performing currency this year, having lost nearly 10 per cent. A weak rupee has resulted in imports, overseas education and foreign travel getting more expensive.
Travel agencies too are understandably hit. Kolkata-based Susrita Banerjee who runs ‘Fly Faraway’ says, business was already down and the currency volatility has just made matters worse.
“Business has definitely been affected due to dollar rates spiralling upwards. The season has been very slow since June. Normally for (Durga) Puja (in October) the booking process starts from July but this time it's nearly September and still the market is in a slump. Among the queries that were generated in June-July most have cancelled with the rest yet to confirm,” Banerjee said.
However, for Delhi-based travel agent Dev Bhatt, most of whose business revolves around sending Muslim pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, it’s business as usual. “There isn’t a lot of impact for me, because business is anyway slow these days. My business mostly revolves around sending Muslims for Haj pilgrimage. But, I can imagine that for others, it must be quite bad,” said Bhatt who owns a travel agency called Indo Gulf Aviation.
While the rupee getting rapped may be bad news for most, exporters who earn in dollars are smiling, at least for now.
“There is obviously some windfall gain as the rupee has been consistently weakening against the dollar. It is a short term profit though because if the current benchmark of dollar vs rupee is considered, our clients abroad who are the importers will start pushing for a reduction in prices," said Panipat-based textile exporter Suneel Kohli.
Earlier on Wednesday, economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg had said that he expects the rupee to stabilise in the 68-70 band as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) had once again turned net investors in the Indian market.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2N4ajUs
