- Indian Rupee (INR) falls, extending losses from last week
- Indian wholesale inflation rises
- US Dollar (USD) rises after stronger wholesale inflation data
- No US data is due today
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is rising, extending gains from the previous week. The pair rose 0.03% in the previous week, settling on Friday at 82.87. At 10:30 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.09% at 82.97 and trades in a range of 82.89 to 83.13.
The Rupee is falling in risk-off trade as investors worried about the health of the Chinese economy. The Chinese property sector is once again under the spotlight after Country Garden, one of the country’s largest property developers, fell to a record low amid concerns over its debt pile. The news bodes poorly for China’s property market.
Separately India’s wholesale price index fell 1.36% year on year in July, a smaller-than-expected decline amid higher food prices and rising commodity prices.
The wholesale price index for July was expected to drop 2.7% after falling 4.12% in June. In July food prices rose 7.75% compared with a 1.24% decline in June.
Inflation in India is showing signs of accelerating after easing across the first few months of the year.
Indian retail inflation data is due to be released later and is expected to be 6.4%, rising above the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance band of 2% -6% for the first time in five months.
The US Dollar is rising across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades at +0.04% at the time of writing at 102.97, extending gains from last week.
The US dollar rose last week after higher-than-expected consumer and wholesale inflation data boosted bets that the Federal Reserve may not be done with hiking interest rates.
On Friday, producer prices, or wholesale prices, rose more than expected, up 0.8% annually, above June’s upwardly revised 0.2% and higher than the 0.7% expected.
On a monthly basis, producer prices rose 0.3% from June to July, the highest monthly rise since January.
Looking ahead there is no high impacting US economic data due to be released today. Instead sentiment is likely to drive USD demand.