- Indian Rupee (INR) rises despite as COVID cases in capital fall
- Indian economic growth is expected to be 7.6% in 2022/23
- US Dollar (USD) rises even after jobless claims miss
- No US data due, FOMC in focus next week
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is moving lower after mild gains in the previous session. The pair settled +0.09% higher on Thursday at 74.44. At 11:30 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.09% at 74.38.
The India Rupee is strengthening as India’s capital looks set to remove a weekend curfew and allow staff to start returning to offices as COVID cases falls. The number of new COVID cases in Delhi more than halved from its peak of almost 29,000 on January 13. The lifting of the curbs is good news for the economy.
Separately India Rating & Research said that they expect the Indian economy to grow by 7.6% in the 2022-23 year. The agency said that the inflation trajectory is on the higher side and the economic recovery is still fragile.
Looking ahead Indian foreign exchange reserve data from the Reserve Bank of India will be in focus.
The US Dollar is falling across the board The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies trades -0.12% at the time of writing at 95.62 after booking gains in the previous session. The US Dollar is on track to lose 0.35% across the week.
The US Dollar rose in the previous session even after US jobless claims unexpectedly rose to the highest level in three months. Jobless claims rose to 281,000 last week, up from 231,000 the week before. Analysts had been expecting jobless claims to fall to 220,000. Jobless claims rose as Omicron cases surged in the US and are starting to impact employers.
Today there is no high impacting US data. However, investors will be looking ahead to the Fed rate decision next week. Fears are rising that the Fed may need to move quicker to hike interest rates in order to tame inflation. The fear is that the US economy won’t be able to absorb so many rate hikes.
