Rupee sinks 56 p to 68.07 a dollar

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 15

The rupee on Tuesday crashed by 56 paisa to breach the 68-mark to the US dollar mark, for the first time since January last year as rising crude oil prices and growing trade deficit added to worries over the currency.

The rupee has been one of the worst-performing currencies in the Asia Pacific region in the current year. The trade data released on Tuesday showed that for April oil imports were valued at $10.4 billion, up 41.45% over April 2017.

As domestic retail petrol and diesel prices begin to be revised upwards with the Karnataka elections getting over, foreign broking house, Morgan Stanley estimated that prices are currently benchmarked to $71-72 a barrel and to make up for the margin loss by oil companies in the last nearly three weeks need to be raised by 6% or around Rs 4.5 a litre. It, however, remains to be seen what kind of revision is passed on.