India FM discusses economy with FIIs, bankers
August 25, 2013, 6:09 am

The rupee had, on Thursday, slumped to its all time low of 65.56 intraday against the dollar [AP]

The Finance Minister was taking the views of bankers and market participants on Saturday, for short-term measures, which could bring in more foreign funds to the country, which could stem volatility in the foreign exchange market at the earliest.

The rupee had, on Thursday, slumped to its all time low of 65.56 intraday against the dollar.

Chidambaram was accompanied by Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram and Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru.

“We have done our arithmetic to get some additional flows, including through quasi sovereign bonds issued by public sector finance institutions…..They are preparing for a programme and according to that it will be decided,” said Mayaram.

Mr. Takru said that lot of good ideas came out of the meeting.

“I think you should see something coming up shortly, next 8 to 10 days,” said Takru.

He also said that in the last one month, 27 different projects had been cleared with timeframe. “These are all large projects and next week, nine projects are coming for final decision before the Cabinet.”

Mayaram also said that the country was expecting strong capital inflows through the foreign direct investment (FDI) route to compensate any outflow of funds as the U.S. Federal Reserve rolls back its stimulus programme, which is likely to attract funds back to the U.S.

The Reserve Bank of India raised $978.34 million through the open market operation bond purchase auction on Friday.

Chidambaram had announced in February a target of $6.2 billion for this fiscal year through partial sell-offs of state-run firms, as part of his efforts to stave off a threatened ratings downgrade by reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.8 percent of GDP.

Source: Agencies