Indian rupee breaches 14 vs dirham

The Indian rupee is trading excitingly close to the 14-mark versus the UAE dirham this afternoon as it drops to the lowest in two months on dollar demand by oil exporters.

Indian expats are hoping for a rerun of the most favorable exchange rate ever they received last December as the rupee is trading at exactly Rs14 to Dh1 at 1.12pm UAE time (9.12am GMT) on March 26, 2012 – its weakest showing since January 16, when it traded above the 14-mark.

After achieving a lifetime low of Rs14.62 versus Dh1 on December 15, 2011, the rupee appreciated to a high of Rs13.23 against the UAE dirham on February 5, 2012, but has since lost 5.75 per cent of its value in the seven weeks since then.

The Indian rupee has lost about a third of its value against the UAE dirham since 2008, when it traded at Rs10.72 against Dh1 on January 1, 2008. “Anecdotal reports from money transfer companies suggest that remittances from the GCC countries surged in the third and fourth quarters of 2011 because of the weak rupee,” the World Bank said in its report on