MUSCAT: Indian expatriates are making a beeline at exchange houses to take advantage of the weak rupee, which helped them to send more money to their home country.
Money exchange sources said the volume of remittances must have increased by 10 per cent in August-September period, over the same period last year.
Although the rupee marginally recovered yesterday, the Indian currency is still ruling at a 28-month low of Rs128 per Omani rial.
“The Indian rupee touched a recent low on Thursday at Rs128.4 against a rial, which further came down to Rs129 on Friday morning. However, reports that the Reserve Bank of India is intervening in the forex market by pumping dollar helped a marginal recovery in rupee value at Rs128 later in the day yesterday,” said K. P. Sasidharan, general manager of Global Money Exchange, which is managed by the State Bank of Travancore.
Still, it is the best rate since May 2009.
Echoing a similar view, Reju Mathew Zakaria, marketing manager at the Oman UAE Exchange said, “The volume of remittance has increased substantially.”
“We never anticipated this kind of fall in rupee value, which was mostly driven by concerns on European debt and its consequences in India,” added Zakaria.
“Initially, we thought that the rate will hover in the range of 120-121,” added Sasidharan.
High net worth individuals and investors, who can afford to save money, are sending more money as they were waiting for better rates.
Sources at exchanges also said that there are two types of customers — middle or low income group and high net worth individuals.
The first category is generally not much bothered about the fluctuation in exchange rate as their families depend on remittances for their monthly expenses, while the second category waits for a better rate.
“Those who remit less than Rs15,000 are not bothered as they do not have any other option but to send money,” said another money exchange official.
Those who send money for investment purpose are taking advantage on the weak rupee. This section constitutes around 25-30 per cent of the total remitters. But the volume of funds they constitute is high at almost 60 per cent.
As far as the growth in inflow of expatriate workers is concerned, sources at money exchanges said that it was moderate for the last one year.
“Some indications suggest that the rupee may continue at this level (against dollar) for another two to three days,” said Zakaria.
In fact, several factors contributed to the recent depreciation of dollar against Indian rupee. Indian rupee fell to a 28-month low against dollar, mainly on account of severe shortage of dollar. As many as 16 money exchange companies with a total network of 149 branches operate in the Sultanate.
(Follow timesofoman.com on Facebook and on Twitter for updates that you can share with your friends.)
Source http://www.timesofoman.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment