jaspreet kalra

The Reserve Bank of India's net forward dollar liabilities ballooned to a record $200 billion in August, ​per data released on Wednesday, as the central bank absorbed a surge in one-off ‌policy-induced dollar inflows.

The Indian rupee slipped to its lowest since late July on Wednesday as strong dollar ​demand from local companies and expectations of a U.S. Federal ‌Reserve rate hike later in the day weighed on the currency.

Using mobile phones to scan a QR code for payments has become near ubiquitous behaviour in India over the last decade, thanks to a widely used homegrown network, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

The Indian rupee declined for a third straight session on Thursday as oil prices continued to march ​higher on worries over the escalating conflict in the Middle East, ‌elevated dollar demand linked to derivative maturities and corporate hedging.

India is pushing to link central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) across BRICS nations for cross-border payments at ‌a summit later this week, despite political and technical hurdles that could limit progress, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

The Indian rupee traded in a narrow range on Monday, wedged between sustained market intervention by the ​Reserve Bank of India and a rise in oil prices ‌as strikes on vessels sailing through the Strait of Hormuz stoked worries over energy flows.

Alipay+'s proposal to link with India's instant payments system for cross-border transactions has been stalled due to national security concerns ‌in New Delhi and questions about the storage and use of customer data, three sources familiar with the discussions said.

India's rate setters signalled the possibility of rate hikes ahead even as they left interest rates unchanged at their policy meeting earlier this month, watching for evidence that supply-sparked inflation may be seeping into the broader ​economy, minutes of the committee's meeting released on Wednesday showed.

The Indian rupee fell to its weakest level since late July on Wednesday, due to elevated oil prices ​and sustained dollar demand from companies, but likely intervention by the ‌central bank kept a lid on its losses.

Strong inflows from a foreign deposit drive prompted ​the Indian central bank to cut short a zero-cost FX swap facility for banks, with policymakers also wary of the ‌domestic liquidity effects and the cost of such fundraising, analysts said.