Rupee depreciated only 7% in five years: Goyal

Notwithstanding the knock that the rupee has taken against the dollar in recent days, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that it is the best period that India has seen when the currency has only depreciated by seven per cent in a five-year period.

"I think today we have an economy that is able to withstand the current international pressure. We have a situation like 2013, the dollar is getting strengthened because of the quantitative easing in the US. They are sucking out USD 10 billion and USD 300 or USD 350 billion every year. Trade rates have gone crazy. Oil prices are shooting up consistently. Despite that have you realised in 2013 the rupee to a dollar was at 68.86. 

"We are in 2018, Five years later if a dollar is at Rs 73.5 effectively, the rupee has depreciated less than five rupees, which at 68.86 is about seven per cent. This to my mind is the best period that India has seen when the rupee has only depreciated by seven per cent in a five-year period," he said at the Hindustan Times International Leadership Summit.