- Indian Rupee (INR) edges lower on RBI dovish comments
- India’s retail inflation is expected to remain above of RBI tolerance
- US Dollar (USD) falls versus majors after mixed FOMC minutes
- US jobless claims in focus
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is clawing higher for a third straight session. The pair gained 0.3% on Wednesday settling at 74.79. At 11:40 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.03% higher at 74.81.
The Indian Rupee is failing to capitalize on the weaker US Dollar following dovish remarks from the Reserve Bank of India president Shaktikanta Das. The central banker said that he wants to anchor inflation expectations in order to focus on reviving economic growth in the country, which is still attempting to recover from the second covid wave.
Mr. Das urged the government to lower fuel taxes in order to help rein in inflation. India’s retail inflation is expected to have accelerated in June amid rising food prices, remaining above the RBI’s 2% -6% tolerance zone. Retail inflation data is due on Monday.
The US Dollar is trading higher versus the Rupee. However, it is sliding lower versus its major peers. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies trades -0.11% at the time of writing at 92.54 paring paring gains from the previous session.
The US dollar is falling lower following mixed messages in the FOMC minutes. The minutes from the June meeting confirmed that the US central bank is moving towards tapering bond purchases, possibly as soon as this year.
However, Fed policy makers also said that whilst there has been progress on the economic recovery, but the recovery was gen5rally viewed as not being achieved yet.
Despite the minutes, the US treasury market is proving to be less concerned over rising inflation and interest rates. The benchmark 10 year treasury yield tumbled to fresh 4 month lows and the US Dollar is tracing yields lower.
Attention will now turn to the US jobless claims which are expected to show a decline to 350,000 initial claims, down from 364,000 in the previous week.
