India Advisers Urge RBI to Stabilize Rupee
NEW DELHI--India's central bank should intervene in the foreign-exchange market to stabilize the rupee, two senior advisers to the prime minister said Wednesday, as the local unit tumbled to a fresh record low against the U.S. dollar for a third straight session.</br></br>The comments from C. Rangarajan, chairman of the prime minister's Economic Advisory Council, and panel member M. Govinda Rao come as the rupee continues its fall because of global risk aversion due to the euro-zone crisis and worries over India's high inflation and slowing economic growth.</br></br>The recent slump of the rupee, Asia's worst-performing currency this year, has increased calls for strong action from authorities, but the Reserve Bank of India has maintained it would intervene in the currency markets only to manage volatility.</br></br>The dollar quoted at 53.70 rupees late Wednesday in Asia, after trading as high as 53.88 rupees, compared with its previous peak of 53.515 rupees, reached Tuesday.</br></br>Mr. Rangarajan blamed the rupee's recent weakness on the temporary mismatch between capital inflows and a yawning current-account gap.