Rupee Hits New All-Time Low, Continues to be Asia’s Worst Performer

Delays in the trade deals with the US and EU, sharp FII outflows have made Rupee unable to take advantage of a weak dollar.

The Wire Staff

Delays in the trade deals with the US and EU, sharp FII outflows have made Rupee unable to take advantage of a weak dollar.

rupee hits new all time low continues to be asia’s worst performer

Representative image of Indian currency notes. Photo: Syed Hussaini/Unsplash.

New Delhi: The rupee fell to Rs 90.74 against the US dollar on December 15, Monday. This beats its previous all-time low of Rs 90.55 to a dollar, a figure that it hit on December 12.

On December 16, Tuesday it went even lower, hitting Rs 90.83 to a dollar.

India’s currency is now Asia's worst performer this year, reports Reuters. It “avoided steeper losses amid likely central bank intervention,” four traders told the news agency.

The Rupee has been falling rapidly this year, and its fall is linked to perceptions about the weak state of its economy and the limited appeal its equities hold for foreign investors. Foreign portfolio investments have seen a record outflow with $18 billion having left India in 2025 so far. This makes it “one of the worst-hit markets in terms of portfolio outflows” in the world. “Persistent risk aversion and a steady demand for dollars by importers” is also being cited by news reports as precipitate causes.

The rupee has fallen almost 6% against the dollar year-to-date. Steep U.S. tariffs of up to 50% on Indian goods hurt exports to its biggest market with which it enjoyed a surplus.

Delays in US, EU trade deals further hitting sentiment

Trade data out yesterday for November suggested a small uptick as it narrowed to a five-month low to Rs 6.6 billion. This follows a small rebound in merchandise exports and a decline in imports of oil, gold and coal.

But India's chief economic adviser, V. Anantha Nageswaran saying that the trade deal with the US is likely only by March, next year has further dampened sentiment and the Rupee is set to continue to take a knock.

India and the European Union, meanwhile, are also unlikely to finalise a trade deal by this year's end, as per Politico.

The fall in the rupee is the worst if peer currencies of China’s Yuan and Indonesia’s Rupiah are taken into account and it is happening at a time when the dollar is weak.

This article went live on December sixteenth, two thousand twenty five, at twenty-two minutes past twelve at noon.

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