No serious crisis for the Indian currency: Jaitley

New Delhi, December 19

Against the backdrop of sliding value of rupee, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday insisted that there was “no serious crisis” for the Indian currency as it was stabilising after few days of “volatility”.

Jaitley told Rajya Sabha that currencies of all emerging markets witnessed turmoil and volatility on account of stronger US dollar but rupee was still performing better in comparison.

“There is a serious challenge as far as emerging markets are concerned due to stronger dollar... Rupee is performing better compared to other emerging markets,” the Minister said.

He was speaking on the Appropriation (No 4) Bill, 2014.

In the last four days, there has been volatility in rupee due to many factors such as expectations from the US Federal Reserve’s policy announcement and steep decline in Russian currency rouble.

Rouble and currencies of some other emerging countries faced problems but compared to those, rupee was one of the more stable currencies, Jaitley said.

“There was turmoil and volatility as far as emerging markets were concerned. After two days of volatility, there is a sobering effect as far as Indian rupee is concerned.

“I don’t see any serious crisis on the real value of rupee,” Jaitley said.

After witnessing volatility, the rupee had gained 50 paise—the steepest single day gain in last seven months—to close at 63.11 against the dollar on Thursday.

PTI