Rupee dips to historic low of 97.73 against US dollar

The Nepali rupee dipped to a historic low vis-à-vis the US dollar as the central bank fixed a reference exchange rate at Rs 97.73 per US dollar for tomorrow, due to weakening Indian rupee, with which it is pegged at.

The Indian rupee has been depreciating against the green back since lkast few months and the Reserve Bank of India has also been trying to stabilise it, but without any immediate results.

Today, the Indian rupee dropped by 73 paisa to 61.20 against the US dollar making Nepal rupee to dip at Rs 96.69 against a US dollar.

Earlier, Nepali rupee had dipped to Rs 97.69 per US dollar in the first week of July.

The freefall of Nepali rupee against the US dollar has already been making imported goods from third countries and raw materials including imports from India against the US dollar more expensive.

Most of the importers have stopped opening the Letter of Credit (LC) fearing the hike in price of imports.

But the remittance inflow – that is expected to surpass the budget of Rs 404.82 billion of the last fiscal year 2012-13 – for the last fiscal year itself will see rise due to expensive US dollar.

Some of the economists still expecting the US dollar to be as expensive as Rs 100, following the current market trend.