Rupee flat

The rupee was little changed on Tuesday against the dollar due to routine demand for the greenback from importers, dealers said.

The local currency closed at 155.36 against the dollar, compared with the Monday’s closing of 155.36 in the interbank market.

The local unit; however, lost 10 paisas to end at 155.50/dollar in the open market.

Dealers said the currency was stable during the trade, amid insignificant dollar demand from importers.

The currency was also supported by surplus in October’s current account deficit. The current account balance posted a surplus of $99 million in October versus a deficit of $1.280 billion in the same month last year. The deficit narrowed to $1.747 billion in July-October fiscal year 2019/20 from $5.567 billion a year ago.

The contraction in the October’s current account numbers is mainly due to falling imports and increase in exports.

The sets of policy actions such as exchange rate devaluation, monetary tightening and fiscal contraction led to an improvement in the current account balance.

Analysts expect the central bank to keep the policy rate unchanged at 13.25 percent at its review meeting on Friday, despite a significant improvement in the balance of payments.