- Indian Rupee (INR) rises after losses last week
- GDP data is due tomorrow
- US Dollar (USD) eases after strong gains
- US durable good & pending home sales due
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is falling on Monday, reversing some of the gains from the previous week. The pair rose 0.18% last week, settling on Friday at 82.89. At 10:00 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.04% at 82.86 and trades in a range of 82.83 to 82.95.
The Indian Rupee fell last week as risk appetite took a hit from fears that central banks would be hiking interest rates for longer in order to tame inflation, which is proving to be stickier than expected.
This week the Rupee is widely expected to remain range bound ahead of Indian GDP data, which could be used by the Reserve Bank of India ahead of their next monetary policy meeting in April. The RBI is expected to raise interest rates again in April after a jump in inflation in January.
Meanwhile, growth is expected to have slowed further in the October to December period owing to weaker demand as interest rate hikes drag on the economy.
The US Dollar is falling across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades -0.7% at the time of writing at 105.16, after booking gains of over 1% in the previous week.
The US dollar posted its fourth straight week of gains last week and is set to end a four-month losing streak in February after core personal consumption expenditure, the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge inflation Expectedly rose in January to 4.7% year on year, up from an upwardly revised 4.6% in December.
The data comes after consumer prices also rose by more than expected in January which supports the central banks’ view the interest rates may need to go higher for longer.
Attention now turns to US durable goods data which is expected to fall by 4% in January month on month after rising 5.6% in December.
US pending home sales will also be under the spotlight and are expected to rise 1% month on month in January after rising 2.5% in December.
