UAE’s expat Indians continue to enjoy the lowest rupee-to-dirham rates ever, with the official exchange rates ranging between 22.60-22.65 between October 1 to now
The Indian rupee remains stuck to its lowest level of 22.66 to the UAE dirham despite expectations that it could drop further against the dollar after the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, reported gulfnews.com.
In fact, the ‘dollar index’ had firmed up just a bit, but that was not enough to bring about a further drop to the rupee’s status. UAE’s expat Indians continue to enjoy the lowest rupee-to-dirham rates ever, with the official exchange rates ranging between 22.60-22.65 between October 1 to now.
“Chances of a drastic drop in INR value seem like a stretch.”
— Neelesh Gopalan, Senior FX Analyst at a Dubai-based fintech
The INR-AED has been stuck at or close to these lows since mid-September. “But the Israel-Hamas conflict can still change everything, especially if India has to pay a higher price for its oil imports and thus straining the country’s dollar reserves,” said an FX analyst. “Then, we could see the rupee slip to 22.68-22.73 levels (or 83.32-83.48 in rupee-to-US dollar terms).” (India’s dollar holdings were $598 billion in August.)
Whatever be the case, for expat Indians, current levels are a definite plus. Even given the fact that the rupee has been relatively stable through the year compared to the 11 per cent plus decline in 2022.
As for right now, the rupee-to-dirham level is weighed heavily in favour of expat Indians in the UAE and Gulf. Remittance levels picked up significantly since the first week of September, with currency exchange houses confirming high traffic over the last weekend. And they are expecting more of the same in the coming weeks: “Chances of a drastic drop in INR value seem like a stretch,” Neelesh Gopalan, senior FX analyst at a Dubai-based fintech was quoted saying.
*************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com
