Wednesday 03 / December / 2025
Muscat: The Indian Rupee continues its downfall against the US Dollar. On Tuesday it depreciated by 33 paise, and on Wednesday, at the time of going to press, by 35 paise. Currently, it is being traded at 90.22. Exchange houses here are offering above Rs234 for one Omani Rial.
Speaking to Times of Oman, R. Madhusoodanan, a financial expert based in Muscat, said that the INR continues to be under pressure mainly due to the large foreign outflows and the prevailing trade uncertainties. NRIs are happy with the higher value for their money. The blue-collar workers are able to liquidate their liabilities in India early.
He said, the flip side is that repayment of foreign-denominated loans, payment towards foreign education fees, treatment abroad, tourism, etc, are going to be expensive.
While exporters are happy, importers are not. Imports have become costly due to the rupee depreciation. The corporates are also worried as the repayment of USD-denominated loans will be costlier henceforth. It may also be noted that there was a jump in the gold and silver imports. India also spends a sizeable amount on crude. All these will adversely impact the current account deficit (CAD) of India. Already, exports are affected due to the retaliatory tariff by the US administration.
The rupee has depreciated by over 4.7 per cent during 2025, which is above the depreciation of other East Asian currencies. The more than expected GDP growth of 8.2 per cent for the second quarter has not positively impacted the forex market. The higher outflows from the equity market, large dollar demand from the corporates, hiking of policy rates by the Bank of Japan(BOJ), shifting of investments from crypto to US dollar as a safe haven, limited intervention by the RBI in the forex market etc, are the domestic and international reasons, Madhusoodanan said.
Outlook
The rupee appears weak against the greenback. The uncertainty surrounding the trade negotiations and US tariffs on Indian exports, the higher FII outflows, are major worries. The drop in crude and, marginal decrease in the dollar index (DXY) are positives for the INR in the coming days. There are limitations for strong RBI interventions through a comfortable forex reserve of $688 billion. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is scheduled from 3rd and 5th December 2025. The outcome of the policy will be announced on Friday, the 5th of December. This may give some direction to the rupee movement, R. Madhusoodanan said.
