- Indian Rupee (INR) falls but gains this week
- USD inflows related to inter-company borrowing & fiscal year-end
- US Dollar (USD) rises against its major peers
- US services PMI jumps to 54.3
The US dollar-to-Indian rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate rose on Friday after two days of losses. The pair fell 0.24% in the previous session, settling on Thursday at 85.24. At 21:30 UTC USD/INR trades -0.26% higher at 85.47 and is in a range of 84.77 to 85.59. The price fell 0.07% this week, marking the fifth consecutive weekly decline.
The Indian rupee, along with other Asian currencies, fell sharply on Friday after China, the world’s second largest economy, retaliated against President Trump’s steep trade tariffs. America added tariffs of 34% on top of an already 20% levy in place, bringing the total hit to 54%. China has said that it will retaliate with 34% tariffs on US imports from April 10.
The US Dollar across the board on Friday. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, rose 1% on Friday to 103.11 but still fell 0.9% across the week.
The US Dollar rose on Friday after stronger than expected US non-farm payroll data. The report showed that 228,000 jobs were added in March, which was ahead of the 135,000 forecast and significantly higher than the 117,000 added in February, a downward revision from the previously reported 151,000.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 4.2%, and average weekly earnings were 0.3% as expected.
The data helped improve the mood and pushed the greenback back into positive territory on Friday, but it still booked steep losses across the week amid fears of an American recession due to Trump’s trade policies. Investment bank JP Morgan now sees a 60% chance of a US recession by the end of the year up from 40% previously. They highlighted disruptive US policies as being the biggest risk to the global outlook all year.