The Indian Rupee (INR) falls back against the US Dollar (USD) on Friday, with the USD/INR pair recovering to near 90.25, following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) dovish monetary policy announcement. The RBI cuts its Repo Rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 5.25%, and announces to inject Rs. 1 lakh crore into the economy through Open Market Operations (OMO), a tool through which the Indian central bank purchases government securities and a three-year USD/INR swap of $5 billion in December.
The RBI has explained that members decided unanimously to lower borrowing rates amid cooling inflationary pressures. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra stated that the headline inflation has eased significantly and is likely to remain below projections.
The central bank has projected that both headline and core inflation will remain below 4% during the first half of 2026. For the current financial year, the RBI has revised inflation projections to 2.0% from 2.6% anticipated earlier. Taking strong cues from the Q3 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, the RBI has raised growth projections for the current fiscal year to 7.3% from 6.8%.
On the forex reserves front, the RBI stated that it holds a healthy USD 686 billion buffer that could provide import cover for more than 11 months . Governor Malhotra has also expressed confidence that the external sector remains “resilient”, and the central bank is “confident of meeting its external financing requirements comfortably”.
A dovish monetary policy announcement by the RBI is expected to exert pressure on the Indian Rupee going forward, which is already facing the burden of continuous outflow of overseas funds from the Indian stock market amid tariff issues with the United States (US).
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have turned out to be net sellers in all four trading days of December, and have offloaded shares worth Rs. 9,964.72 crores in this period. Overseas investors have also remained net sellers in all months since July.
The table below shows the percentage change of Indian Rupee (INR) against listed major currencies today. Indian Rupee was the weakest against the Japanese Yen.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | INR | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | -0.11% | -0.14% | -0.32% | -0.07% | -0.19% | 0.14% | -0.12% | |
| EUR | 0.11% | -0.03% | -0.23% | 0.05% | -0.06% | 0.24% | -0.00% | |
| GBP | 0.14% | 0.03% | -0.21% | 0.08% | -0.05% | 0.29% | 0.03% | |
| JPY | 0.32% | 0.23% | 0.21% | 0.29% | 0.15% | 0.47% | 0.22% | |
| CAD | 0.07% | -0.05% | -0.08% | -0.29% | -0.13% | 0.19% | -0.05% | |
| AUD | 0.19% | 0.06% | 0.05% | -0.15% | 0.13% | 0.33% | 0.06% | |
| INR | -0.14% | -0.24% | -0.29% | -0.47% | -0.19% | -0.33% | -0.25% | |
| CHF | 0.12% | 0.00% | -0.03% | -0.22% | 0.05% | -0.06% | 0.25% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Indian Rupee from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent INR (base)/USD (quote).
Daily digest market movers: US Dollar falls back to five-week low
- The Indian Rupee falls against the US Dollar, even as the US Dollar struggles to hold its immediate lows. At the press time, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, retreats to near its five-week low around 98.75.
- The outlook of the US Dollar remains weak as the Federal Reserve (Fed) is widely anticipated to cut interest rates in its monetary policy meeting next week. According to the November 28-December 4 Reuters poll, 82% of economists surveyed predicted that the Fed would reduce its key borrowing rates by 25 basis points (bps) to 3.50%-3.75% to support deteriorating job market conditions.
- Upbeat Fed dovish expectations are contrary to October’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes, which showed that several members did not necessarily view a reduction in December as appropriate, while remaining confident that more rate cuts would be needed in the distant future.
- In the monetary policy meeting next week, investors would like to know how much the Fed will cut interest rates further if it decides to reduce the Federal Funds Rate by 25 bps. In addition, investors would also pay close attention to the Fed’s guidance on the labor market outlook.
- Meanwhile, labor demand has weakened significantly, partly driven by growing acceptance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by firms. The US ADP reported on Thursday that the private sector shed 32K jobs in November, while it was expected to add 5K fresh workers.
- In Friday’s session, investors will focus on the US Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index (PCE) data for September, which will be released on Friday.
Technical Analysis: USD/INR aims to revisit all-time high near 90.70
USD/INR rises to near 90.25 during the opening session on Friday. The pair corrected on Thursday after posting a fresh all-time high around 90.70.
The 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) retraces to near 67.50 after turning overbought around 76.14, flagging a cool down in stretched momentum.
Initial support is the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) near 89.44; above this gauge, the uptrend would stay in place. On the upside, the pair could extend its rally towards 91.00.
