By Nimesh Vora
MUMBAI, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee was largely
flat on Friday and for the week versus the U.S. dollar, having
avoided the decline in other Asian currencies due to a likely
intervention by the country's central bank.
The rupee was little changed at 82.75 per dollar,
and was slightly up from last Friday's 82.83.
The local currency held a narrow 82.61 to 82.85 range during
the week, with the one-month volatility expectations hovering near the lowest level in seven months.
In contrast to the rupee's performance, it was another
challenging week for most of the major Asian currencies. The
offshore Chinese yuan , the South Korean won and the Singapore dollar were down between 0.7% and 1.2%
for the week.
The Reserve Bank of India likely sold dollars this week to
make sure that the rupee did not slide below the psychological
83 level to the dollar and helped the domestic currency
outperform its major Asian peers. The dollar index was up about 0.8% since last Friday
and was headed for its fourth straight weekly gain.
The greenback remained supported by the ongoing reassessment
of the U.S. Federal Reserve peak rate and for how long interest
rates were likely to stay high.
The U.S. core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price
index, the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, is due later in
the day and could support the higher-for-longer interest rate
narrative.
"Today should see the January core PCE deflator at a sticky
0.4% month-on-month," ING Bank said in a note to clients.
"In other words, the U.S. disinflation/bearish dollar
narrative will find little from today's data."
(Reporting by Nimesh Vora; editing by Eileen Soreng)
