- Indian Rupee (INR) is steady after gains last week
- India’s tax receipts rose by 17.7%
- US Dollar (USD)falls versus its major peers
- Fed speakers raise doubts over an early rate cut
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is holding steady after losses last week. The pair fell 0.22% in the previous session, settling on Friday at 83.35. At 10:00 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.05% at 83.59 and trades in a range of 83.36 to 83.74.
The Indian rupee Is holding onto last week’s gains as the country’s elections kicked off on Friday and as earning season also begins.
Meanwhile, economic data showed that India’s income receipts rose 17.7% year on year in the 2023/2024 financial year ending in March, reflecting rising taxpayer incomes and corporate profits.
Net income tax receipts for the financial year rose to ₹19.58 trillion, up from 16.64 trillion in the previous financial year.
Corporate tax collection rose 10.26% to ₹9.11 trillion, up from ₹8.26 trillion in the same period last year, which is good news amid signs of rising income.
The US Dollar is falling across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades at -0.07% at the time of writing at 106.08 after modest gains last week.
The US dollar is falling at the start of the week after booking modest gains last week as it continues to hover around a 5 1/2-month high.
The greenback has been boosted by expectations that the Federal Reserve will not be cutting interest rates anytime soon, given the resilience in the US economy and the sticky nature of inflation.
Last week, several Federal Reserve policymakers warned that a lack of progress in cooling inflation means there’s no urgency to start cutting interest rates anytime soon. Fed official Austin Goolsbee warned that there was no urgency to cut rates, while St Louis Fed president James Bullard warned that the Fed was unlikely to start cutting rates until later in the year.
Today, there is no high impacting U.S. economic data; however, there is still plenty across the week for investors to be sinking their teeth into.
Tomorrow, U.S. business activity data, as measured by the PMI figures, will be released, and Q1 GDP figures will be released on Thursday. On Friday, the US core PCE, which is the Fed’s preferred gauge for inflation, will be released.
