The Indian Rupee slumped to an all-time low of 69.09 against the dollar last week, surpassing its previous record-low of 68.86 hit in November 2016, and though there was an immediate recovery from those lows on expectations of possible intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the currency continued to struggle and on Monday ended at 68.80 a dollar--just shy of a six-year low of 68.825, touched on 28 August 2013--with chance of any major intervention by the central bank waning.

The concerns are obvious. The currency has now given back almost all the gains it made in 2017. Steep rise in the crude prices, trade war between the two largest economies in the world, hawkish policy of the US Fed and FPI outflows from India, US pressure on countries including India to stop oil imports from Iran -- all these factors contributed to this fall. The government blamed external factors for this volatility, with a Union Minister recently arguing that there was no need for a knee-jerk reaction. In contrast, some experts feel that the Rupee, if left unattended, may slide further to 70 soon.

Is this Rupee free-fall going to help our exporters? Usually, exporters rejoice when the Rupee falls as they earn in dollars; the more the depreciation, the more the earning in Rupees. But a long-term slide can easily take away this benefit, in the form of high costs of imported goods which go as inputs in manufactured goods for exports. Additionally, inflation, which has already showed an upward trend triggered by high crude prices, may deteriorate further, leading to high cost of inputs and transportation in the domestic market.

It is difficult to accept the argument that a 'wait and watch' policy is the best at this juncture. An industry body has recently viewed that RBI must step in now to safeguard macro-economic stability. It adds that the Commerce Ministry should dole out new measures to push exports, while taking measures to curtail non-essential imports. Also, commercial banks should devise schemes for the NRIs to push inward remittances, and SEBI should ease norms to attract investors to the secondary debt and equity markets. These suggestions sound more reasonable.

I invite your opinions.