USD/INR closed at 71.33 against its opening at 71.17. USD/INR closed down as compare to last closing on tuesday at 71.43 due to selling by the exporters.
The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, traded at 96.24 during late Asian traded Wednesday compared to 96.30 at opening. The greenback subdued against it major peers on worries about global economic slowdown.
The IMF lowered its forecasts for global economic growth to 3.5% in 2019 and 3.6% in 2020, 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points below last October's projections.An escalation of trade tensions and a worsening of financial conditions are key sources of risk to the outlook, said the IMF.Also, the IMF expressed concerns about a bigger than expected slowdown in Chinese growth, the Brexit cliffhanger, and the ongoing US government shutdown.
Crude oil prices slumped on concerns about the global economic outlook, after the International Monetary Fund reduced its world economic forecast.Brent crude oil futures for March delivery traded 0.02% down at $61.51 a barrel on Wednesday.
The BoJ will conduct purchases of Japanese government bonds in a flexible manner so that the outstanding amount will increase at an annual pace of about Y80 trillion.Also, the bank lowered the inflation forecast for fiscal 2019 to 1.1% from 1.6% and to 1.5% from 1.6% for fiscal 2020.Core inflation forecast was cut to 0.9% from 1.4% for fiscal 2019. For the fiscal 2020, core inflation projection was trimmed to 1.4% from 1.5%.Data from the Ministry of Finance showed that Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of Y55.286 billion in December.That missed expectations for a deficit of Y35.3 billion following the Y737.7 billion shortfall in November. Exports were down 3.8%, while imports advanced 1.9
On the US economic front, National Association of Realtors said existing home sales plummeted by 6.4% to an annual rate of 4.99 million in December after rising by 2.1% to a revised rate of 5.33 million in November Economists had expected existing home sales to fall by 1.3% to a rate of 5.25 million from the 5.32 million originally reported for the previous month.
Sensex provisionally ends 312 points lower with 22 components in the red.