Letter to BS: Govt should adopt strong measures to stabilise the economy

The slew of measures recently set in motion by the government are mainly to conserve dollar spend and to encourage dollar inflow to dress up the rupee

This refers to “Rupee @75-plus: Turbulence ahead” (September 27). Our long neglect of exports and reliance on domestic consumption have gradually weakened the rupee. 

Deteriorating rate of exchange is an imbalance between earning in rupee and spending in dollars. In the last quarter, we lost $26 billion in foreign exchange reserves, equal to as much as one per cent of our gross domestic product (GDP) and earned in rupees as the GDP grew by 8.2 per cent. The rupee thus kept falling, worsened by bullish crude price over the escalating US-Iran standoff. An adamant Trump presidency may well ensure this standoff