Rupee crosses US$70 mark for first time

As the shock of Turkish Lira fall spreads across the global currencies, especially emerging economies, the Indian rupee hits US$ 70 mark in Tuesday morning's trade. At 12:12 hours on Tuesday, the rupee was at 69.82 mark.

The rupee depreciated 10 per cent against the US dollar in calendar year 2018. Most of this falls can be attributed to the uncertainty induced in the international market with Trump's rhetorics and tweets disrupting global trade every now and then.

Following a diplomatic spat between the United States of America and Turkey emanating from an American pastor being attrested in Turkey for anti-government activities, the US government imposed sanction on Turkey. US President Donald Trump demanded that the American be freed, but the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to oblige. The detained pastor is accused for anti-government espionage and terrorism.

Reacting to Erdogan's refusal, Trump doubled import tariffs for Turkish steel from 25 to 50 per cent and aluminium from 10 to 20 per cent. Turkey is the world's sixth largest steelmaker. This use of powerful sanctions against Turkey comes a week after reimposing sanctions on Iran. The Turkish currency Lira tanked more than 40 per cent against the US dollar this calendar year.

Turkey is a emerging economy and the dip in its currency instantly spread across other emerging nation currencies. Experts believe markets are overreacting to the Crisis in Turkey's economy as Turkey is not China or Russia in terms of global economy, it is too small to make a big difference. On the other hand,

Trump's approach to global trade is disturbing in a era when America's clout over global economy is decreasing rapidly.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex was upbeat on Tuesday at 37,874.22, up by 229.32 points or 0.61 per cent.