Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the government will not have any “knee-jerk reaction” to stem the sharp fall in the rupee as the country’s macro-economic indicators are quite strong. He said the government and the RBI will discuss and take appropriate steps as required taking into account the global situation. After falling below Rs 69 to a dollar for the first time ever, the rupee closed at Rs 68.79 to a dollar on Thursday. In 2013, when the rupee hit Rs 68.8 to a dollar, the then RBI Governor, Raghuram Rajan, introduced Foreign Currency Non-Resident Bank (FCNR-B) deposits under which $32 billion came to India for three years, stabilising the Indian currency, Goyal said. “We have returned those $32 billion and if you see in the last five years there has not been any depreciation in rupee,” he said. Country’s foreign exchange reserves, which stood at $304 billion in 2013-14, are now much higher at $425 billion at the end of 2017-18, and current account deficit and fiscal deficit has fallen since then, Goyal said. “Our macroeconomic indicators from all respects are better today,” he said, adding that India recently witnessed some capital outflows due to hardening of interest rates in the US among others.
