Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu will chair an inter-ministerial meeting on Thursday to discuss measures needed to address weakening of rupee and the resultant widening trade deficit.

An official said the meeting would deliberate on ways to address the trade deficit in goods and pressure on the rupee. Representatives from the ministries of finance, coal, steel, oil and department of pharmaceuticals are expected to attend the meeting, he added.

As rupee hits new lows, RBI has eased overseas borrowing norms for oil companies. It has capped the overall annual foreign currency borrowing under the new norms at $10 billion with immediate effect. The meeting, to be chaired by Suresh Prabhu (in pic), may discuss alternate payment mode for oil companies’ crude purchase, the source said. The rupee weakness would raise India's import bill and widen the trade deficit. The trade deficit was at a five-year high of $18.02 billion in July. It came down to $17.4 billion in August. During the April-August period this fiscal, the country's exports recorded a growth of 16.13 per cent, while imports grew by 17.34 per cent. The depreciating rupee puts pressure on the country's oil import bill as India imports around 90 per cent of its fuel requirements.

Rupee has depreciated nearly 13 per cent since the beginning of this year and has been the worst performing Asian currency. Besides having impact on current account deficit, the sliding rupee has made imports costlier and led to oil prices skyrocketing to record highs.

Since 2011-12, India's exports have been hovering at around $300 billion. During 2017-18, the shipments grew by about 10 per cent to $303 billion. Promoting exports helps a country to create jobs, boost manufacturing and earn more foreign exchange.