MUMBAI: The Indian rupee hit a record low past the 94-per-dollar mark on Friday, hammered by worries over the energy supply crisis sparked by the Middle East war and putting the currency on track for its worst fiscal-year drop in over a decade.
The rupee fell to 94.7875 per dollar, down 0.8 percent and eclipsing its previous all-time low of 93.98 hit earlier this week. It has declined about 4 percent since the war began last month, and is down more than 10 percent since March 31, 2025.
India’s fiscal year runs from April to March.
The last comparable drop was in 2011-12, when global risk-off concerns due to worries over Eurozone debt levels and weakness in India’s external sector yanked the rupee nearly 14 percent lower.
The ongoing war, meanwhile, is the most severe energy supply disruption in decades, sending oil prices soaring and curtailing key exports from the Middle East, with spillovers ranging from cooking gas to household plastics.
The conflict has also pummelled global equities and sent bond yields higher, with investors fretting over inflation and the hit to government finances.
On Friday, India’s benchmark equity index, the Nifty 50 , fell 1.7 percent, while the yield on the 10-year benchmark bond surged as much as 9 basis points to 6.96 percent, the highest since August 2024.
State-run banks were spotted offering dollars in the foreign exchange market but their presence was quite mild, a trader at a private bank said. Bankers reckon that easing central bank defence could leave the rupee exposed to sharper swings.
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