The rupee depreciated by 23 paise against the US dollar to 65.17 on Tuesday as the greenback firmed up ahead of US Federal Reserve’s policy meet this week. A strong dollar and sustained foreign fund outflow weighed on the domestic unit amid rising current account deficit in the December quarter, a currency dealer said.
The current account deficit rose to 2 per cent of the GDP at USD 13.5 billion in the December quarter, up from USD 8 billion or 1.4 per cent in the year-ago period, on the back of higher trade deficit, RBI data showed.
The rupee opened at 65.03 and traded between 65.18 and 65 in intra-day deals.
On Friday, the rupee had ended 1 paisa lower at 64.94 against the US dollar.
Foreign investors withdrew a net Rs 150.46 crore from stocks on Friday, according to provisional data.