Indian Rupee (INR)

India's official currency since 1947, managed by the Reserve Bank of India, whose rate trajectory signals the health of a US$4-trillion economy and drives global bond and equity flows.

자금· ·4 시각 ·2026년 7월 3일

What it is

The Indian rupee (ISO code: INR, symbol ₹) is the official currency of the Republic of India. Section 22 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 gives the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the sole right to issue banknotes; the Government of India designs and mints coins under the Coinage Act, 2011. One rupee equals 100 paise. Active banknote denominations are ₹10, ₹20, ₹50, ₹100, ₹200, and ₹500; the ₹2000 note remains legal tender but has been recalled from active circulation since September 2023. The ₹ symbol, adopted in 2010 and designed by D. Udaya Kumar, fuses the Devanagari letter "र" (ra) with the Latin capital "R" and a double horizontal bar. The rupee's exchange rate is set in India's interbank foreign-exchange market; the RBI intervenes to curb excessive volatility rather than defend a specific level, using spot transactions, forwards, and currency swaps.

History

At independence in 1947, India set a par value with the International Monetary Fund: one rupee equaled 30.225 US cents, or 0.268601 grams of fine gold. The rupee had been pegged to sterling under British colonial administration. India decimalized in April 1957, replacing 16 annas (64 pice) with 100 naya paisa. A balance-of-payments crisis in 1966 forced India's first major devaluation, moving the rate from approximately Rs 4.76 to Rs 7.50 per US dollar. The Bretton Woods system collapsed in 1971; India then linked the rupee to sterling, and from 1975 to a basket of currencies. A second crisis in 1991, when India's reserves fell to roughly two weeks of import cover, drove a two-tranche devaluation to approximately Rs 26 per US dollar and launched India's economic liberalization. India introduced a market-determined exchange rate in 1992 through the Liberalized Exchange Rate Management System and unified the dual rate in March 1993, establishing the managed float that persists today.

Current state

As of July 2026, the rupee trades at approximately Rs 94.48 per US dollar, roughly 10% weaker than twelve months earlier. The IMF reclassified India's de facto exchange rate regime in November 2025 from a stabilized arrangement to a crawl-like arrangement, citing the rupee's narrow and predictable downward trajectory; the RBI contests that framing and describes its policy as a managed float targeting excessive volatility. India's foreign-exchange reserves fell from a peak of US$728 billion in March 2026 to approximately US$672 billion in mid-June 2026 as the RBI drew down reserves to slow the decline. In June 2026 the RBI launched a multi-part currency defence: a Foreign Currency Non-Resident Bank (FCNR-B) deposit scheme targeting US$20 billion in inflows, a US$10 billion dollar-rupee swap, and an expanded Fully Accessible Route for government securities; full details in Rupee at 94 against the dollar, RBI rolls out FCNR-B scheme and $10bn swap to stem the slide. The Government of India simultaneously promulgated an ordinance removing withholding and capital-gains taxes on foreign portfolio investor government-security holdings, documented in India exempts FPIs from G-sec taxes, bond inflows jump sixfold to ₹39,640 crore in June.

Relationships

The RBI manages the rupee; India's Finance Ministry sets the annual borrowing program that anchors the government-securities market. India depends on imports for roughly 88% of its crude-oil needs, making the rupee directly sensitive to global oil prices: rupee depreciation imports inflation and pressures the RBI's 4% consumer price index target. On the capital side, India completed bond-index inclusions in JPMorgan's GBI-EM (June 2024 to March 2025) and Bloomberg's EM Local Currency index (January to October 2025), attracting an estimated US$21-40 billion in passive inflows during the JPMorgan phase-in; a third inclusion in the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index remains pending, tracked in 인도, 채권지수 편입 두 건 완료… 블룸버그 글로벌 종합지수는 연기. The rupee is also traded as a non-deliverable forward (NDF) currency in offshore markets in Singapore, London, and New York, beyond the RBI's direct reach.

What to watch

Whether the FCNR-B scheme attracts the targeted US$20 billion in NRI inflows by September 2026, the single largest near-term lever for the rupee
Bloomberg Global Aggregate inclusion review expected July to August 2026, which would unlock an estimated US$5-7 billion in passive inflows if India is admitted
August 2026 RBI Monetary Policy Committee meeting, the first with a full southwest monsoon reading and its implications for food inflation
Pace of India's foreign-exchange reserve drawdown if US dollar strength resumes or oil prices rebound
FPI equity flow reversal: roughly US$17-18 billion in India equity outflows in 2026 remain the dominant structural headwind

원자료 · 4

Reserve Bank of India, Indian Currency FAQ — RBI's authoritative FAQ on Indian currency (updated April 15, 2025): legal basis under the RBI Act 1934 and Coinage Act 2011, the rupee symbol and design, active banknote denominations, currency production infrastructure, and the highest denomination ever printed (Rs 10,000 in 1938, demonetized 1978).

Reserve Bank of India, Reference Rate Archive — Daily RBI reference rates for USD/INR and five other currency pairs; the archive confirms the rupee at approximately Rs 94.48 per US dollar as of late June 2026, the rate used in all RBI calculations and regulatory filings.

Reserve Bank of India, Exchange Rate History 1945 to 1971 — RBI tabular record of USD/INR rates from 1945-46 through 1970-71, documenting the Bretton Woods-era par value (approximately Rs 3.32 per US dollar), the 1949-50 adjustment linked to the pound sterling devaluation, and the pre-liberalization rate levels.

IMF, India 2025 Article IV Consultation Executive Board Press Release2025년 11월 24일 — IMF Executive Board statement from November 2025 reclassifying India's de facto exchange rate regime to a crawl-like arrangement and recommending greater exchange rate flexibility; notes reserves at US$695 billion covering 109% of the IMF reserve adequacy metric.