Indian rupee tops 71 per dollar as RBI lowers growth forecast

Mumbai: Domestic currency depreciated 13 paise to fall below the physiological mark of 71 a dollar on Monday. In UAE, the rate is Rs 19.30 per dirham. See our new Gold/Forex page for updates rates everyday.

This comes after the Reserve Bank of India sharply lowered its FY20 growth forecast from 6.9 per cent earlier to 6.1 per cent.

However, RBI expects 2QFY20 GDP growth at 5.3 per cent and it forecasts sharp revival to 6.9 per cent in 2HFY20.

The Indian rupee closed at Rs 70.89 a US dollar on Friday after RBI slashed the repo rate by another 25 basis points.

In a unanimous decision, RBI cut its repo rate by 25 bps to 5.15 per cent, taking cumulative cut to 135 bps for CY19 to support growth. Monetary policy stance was maintained as "accommodative".

Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) sold Rs 2,792.21 crore in October as yet and the benchmark Sensex has ended lower for the last five sessions.