The Indian rupee has been consistently outperforming other currencies even as global inflation remains at record levels, and the Russia-Ukraine war continues to grind, throwing curveballs at economies already battered by the scourge of the coronavirus outbreak.
Even as India remains an outlier in heading off inflation and currency depreciation among major economies in the world, the Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently attracted a barrage of online criticism for her informed comment on the strengthening American dollar vis-a-vis other currencies across the globe.
Speaking to reporters after attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Sitharaman said that the fundamentals of the Indian economy were strong and that inflation was low compared to other parts of the world.
“First of all I would look at it as not rupee sliding, I would look at it as dollar strengthening, dollar strengthening incessantly,” she said in reply to a question on the weakening rupee. All other currencies including British Pound around the world are performing against a strengthening dollar, she said. “And I’m not talking technicalities, but it is a matter of fact that India’s rupee probably has withstood this dollar rate going up, the exchange rate in favour of dollar strengthening is there and I think the Indian rupee has performed much better then many other emerging market currencies,” she added.
Sceptics and leftist propagandists, whose knowledge of the world economy and factors affecting currency exchange rate is as poor as their grasp of the political aspirations of the country, made a beeline to mock the finance minister over the nimble-footed monetary policy India embraced in the wake of
unprecedented inflation and accompanying volatility amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
How India continues to be on firm financial footing amid uncertain global cues
Taken together, the Indian rupee has been among the pick of the currencies to push back against an ominously rising American dollar and months after the devastating bout of coronavirus outbreak cratered economies and brought countries to a standstill. While the Indian rupee has fallen 9 percent in the last 8 months, most of the other major currencies have registered double-digit slumps, establishing India’s impressive handling of the economy, which also earned her the praise of the IMF officials, who recently lauded the Indian government for its efficient handling of multiple crisies in an uncertain global environment.
While each country has a unique set of challenges and shares different geographical and geological attributes, strengths and weaknesses, the fact that the Indian rupee has performed significantly better than most of the major currencies in the world is a testament to the Indian government’s prowess in tackling a once-in-a-lifetime kind of crisis, especially in the wake of a global pandemic that wreaked havoc and bled economies around the globe, underscoring their resolve to build a robust and resilient India that is as insulated as possible from the global shocks.
Amidst dark shadows on Russian , Ukraineian , European , UK economies due to energy crisis due to Russia Ukrain war , India therefore enjoys a silver lining