Indian rupee mildly weaker after US Fed's taper decision

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee was slightly weaker in early trades on Thursday after the Federal Reserve said it would scale down its monthly bond purchases, sending emerging market currencies lower. The partially convertible rupee was at 62.26/27 to the dollar versus its close of 62.09/10 on Wednesday.

The US central bank said it would reduce its monthly asset purchases by $10 billion, bringing them down to $75 billion.

The taper will be equally split between mortgage-backed securities and Treasury bonds. The currency is seen as less vulnerable than in the summer when it sold off on fears of a wide current account deficit.

The central bank has since added $34 billion to its reserves after opening two concessional forex swap facilities to draw inflows.