The SGD strengthened to 1.4150 against USD overnight and that has pushed SGD INR to 48.02 mark. I am expecting INR to strengthen when the Indian markets open around 11:30 am Singapore time.
If you are looking to transfer money today then the next 2 hours is a good time using DBS Remit. The offered rate is 47.57 and is expected to fall down once the Indian markets open.
Disclaimer: These are my views and not investment/financial advice. I bear no responsibility for any decisions made by readers.
With the jump in SGD INR the question of what is the best way to transfer money to India becomes important and has been asked a few times. My conclusion before today’s analysis was that DBS remit gives the best rates with the smoothest transaction experience. However in such a competitive market innovations and better pricing is expected and ICICI Bank with its new offering beats competition by a mile.
At the time of comparison the Spot SGD INR was 47.75 and below table shows how the 3 services which offer confirmed Rate transfer compared:
| Service | 3000 | 5000 | 10000 | 15000 | 20000 |
| Money2India | 47.18 | 47.35 | 47.48 | 47.52 | 47.54 |
| DBS Remit | 47.22 | 47.22 | 47.22 | 47.22 | 47.22 |
| SBI Remit | 47.3 | 47.3 | 47.3 |
As you can see for amounts 5000 SGD or more money2india had a substantially better rate than the competition and that happens because they have started charging 25SGD flat fee and reduced currency spreads. The rate money2india used was 47.66 and the results above are shows after taking the 25sgd fee and service charges into account.
Ofcourse the rates offered by money2india would change throughout the day but for transferring amounts greater than 5000 this would be my service of choice (the only other way to get a better rate is if you can find someone who wants SGD and would give you INR and deal at spot)
Couple of things to Note for Money2India transfer Service
1. Only allows upto 400,000 Rs equivalent to be transferred per day using the fixed rate service.
2. The rate is updated around 12:00 noon Singapore time
3. Has a internal daily limit i.e. if the amount they have allocated for a day has been reached customers are refused transfers
I would have expected that there be no limit on amounts being transferred. With these limits it feels that money2india wants to only have small transactions so that they can earn more transfer fee. The rate still is better than DBS but as a customer I find these limits back door way of giving less to customers.
Update: Money2India no longer has fixed fee transfer service and the rates offered are not as good as SBI or DBS. For comparison of rates please refer to the widget on right or at the bottom (when using a phone)
Time flies and it’s already June – I can’t believe that the last I wrote about INR was in February and whole world was speculating on the outcome of the Indian elections. I did not expect the BJP to win with a full majority given the polarisation of votes, combined with regional politics and was expecting a hung parliament.
Based on that I had predicted that the Rupee would fall back to the 63 mark against the USD and 50 against the SGD (SGD INR: A storm in making). However, to my delight, the BJP did get a full majority. This meant that the uncertainty of a hung parliament and issues cropping up from coalition government were instantly non issues.
The markets reacted favorably to a government formed by progressive and reform oriented leaders and pushed the Indian Sensex to all time highs of over 25,000 and Rupee appreciated quite quickly to the Rs.58 mark against the USD. With many a Indians residing in foreign countries who remit money to India the obvious question was – Is the rupee headed to 55 against USD and should I transfer money to India now?
My answer to many such questions was – “the fundamentals of the economy don’t change overnight just with a stable government and the real effect of policy changes would take months to materialise and I still expect Rupee to stay over the 60 mark against the USD”
One of the first places to start when looking at fundamentals is Implied Exchange Rate calculation. Over the past years the spot rate has tended towards the Implied Rate Line (chart below: using SGD INR)
and the calculation suggests that the SGD INR would move back towards the upward trending implied exchange rate line as the RBI is going to hold the interest rates steady – the inflation is still alarmingly high.
Other factors that would be playing against the Indian Rupee would be:
1. Crop losses due to el Nino weather changes
2. Increase in price of crude if the tensions in Iraq escalate
3. Global slow down in the background Ukraine crisis and escalation in South China sea
As I write the Indian rupee has already crossed the 60 mark against the USD and 48 against the SGD and I maintain that the INR would move towards the 63 and 50 mark against the USD and SGD in coming months.
It’s a new year and right about time to do a pulse check on INR for the coming year. The past few months I was very busy at work and with the currency being relatively stable I did not want to write something just for the sake of writing. As mentioned in the October post the currency stabilised in the last quarter of 2013 and stayed well within the 60-65 range against the US dollar and hovered around the 49 mark against the SGD (INR – Directionless in 4th Quarter)
One would have expected things to remain calm for a few more weeks in 2014 before the Indian Budget and upcoming elections in March and May respectively but the global markets had something else in mind.
The Federal Reserve started the much-anticipated tapering of Quantitative Easing (QE) in December, with reducing the Bond purchases by 10 Billion USD a month to 75 Billion and followed it by a reduction of another 10 Billion in January 2014 which spooked the emerging markets.
Turkish Lira and Hungarian Forint were aggressively sold off and the Argentinian Peso is unofficially devalued. The data from China is not exactly exciting and Indonesian Rupiah and Thai Baht have their own set of problems to deal with. At the same time the RBI came out and surprisingly increased the benchmark rates in January announcements which I thing was more of a pre-emptive move to shore up defences against any potential sell off in the Rupee. With such weakness in the other Emerging market currencies the Indian Rupee, I must say, held ground very well.
But this is just the start of the year and there are quite a few events lined up in the coming months that would determine which way the Rupee moves. On the global macro side the course of Global Financial Markets a.k.a. the pace of QE would drive the general sentiments towards emerging markets. On the domestic front The Indian Budget announcements and the general elections would be the key determinants.
Looking at the global front I do not expect the federal reserve to stop tapering and ultimately end the QE program unless there is definitive bad news on the US unemployment and inflation. This reduction in QE would be Rupee negative and as in May – Aug 2013 time frame has the potential to push the Rupee down.
On the domestic front anything short of a stable government with full majority would be a negative for the markets. I think that this stage there is no one clear party that I could say would achieve the majority.
So in the short-medium term of next 3-4 months the chips are stacked against the rupee and I do expect it to touch trade towards the 65-67 mark.
What that does to SGD INR? Well the SGD has slightly weakened against the USD and has been trading at 1.27-1.28 area. Deteriorating global fundamentals tend to result in strengthening SGD as a safe haven currency. So with the expected weakness in the Rupee and potential appreciation of the SGD, SGD INR could march back to the 53 mark in the coming months.
The US debt and budget talks finally reached a resolution yesterday, the congress passed the bill and the much feared US default was averted and the financial markets breathed a sigh of relief. Interestingly the Indian Rupee has been pretty flat both pre and post the US saga.
The drop to 69 against the USD on 28 August was the low point for the Rupee and it steadily regained lost ground in September (Rupee Doing a Bungee Jump – Time to bounce back?) and hovers around 61 as I write.
I often ask myself what has really changed in the past month but can’t find a fundamental reason for the pull back. My take is that it was a technical pull back with Rupee being oversold. Yes one could say that RBI got a new Governor in Raghuram Rajan and that helped Rupees cause, but if changing governors could help the Rupee strengthen by 15% then maybe RBI should abandon monetary policies and use governors to set the direction of the currency :).
Looking at the fundamentals nothing really has changed in the past 2 months – RBI did come up with a FCNR scheme, increase the duty on import of Gold and television sets and a benchmark rate increase. The FCNR scheme is reported to attract 10 billion USD in deposits which would add no more than 3% to the foreign currency reserves. The increase in duty on gold has got the premium over spot soaring in indian markets and made gold smuggling attractive and the increase in duty on television sets has made travel to Thailand and Singapore less attractive – believe it or not bringing in television sets from overseas trips was a great way of subsidizing foreign travel.
On the policy front nothing really has changed in India and no progress is expected until after the next elections in 2014. On the global front there is still a lot of uncertainty and the fear of Quantitative Easing (QE) taper is still there. The general consensus is for no taper before late march 2014 but its an event that will happen sooner or later.
With all the uncertainty and political wrangling I expect the Rupee to remain directionless to the year-end.
63 should act as the pivot against the USD with a variation of 5% either side – a range of 60-65 would be the order. However against the SGD things should be slightly different with 50 acting as a strong magnet.
Now don’t tell me you haven’t wondered if SGD can fetch 50 Rupees per dollar 🙂 and I have to admit that with the current rupee weakness it does not look like a impossible number to achieve.
What’s transpired in past 2 months is nothing short of shocking…personally I never thought that the INR could go past the 60 mark against the US Dollar but then I did not expect the Indian Government to bring in the food security bill, in its current format either, which would cost 3.8% of GDP.
The GDP has already been shrinking and GDP growth is estimated to be well below the 6.5% mark as targeted earlier. With rampant red tape blocking foreign investment, tax evasion and upcoming elections the picture doesn’t look to change dramatically in the near future.
On 8th July the rupee breached the 61 mark against the USD and forced the RBI to step in with measures to stem the fall. Since then rupee has stayed below the 60 mark with a weak undertone.
On the other hand the Singapore economy posted a 3.7% growth for the second quarter of 2013. It was more than 15% growth on a quarter by quarter basis. The results looked good but the guidance does not suggest that the trend would continue.
In the meantime, to moderate the housing market, the Singapore government has come up with total Debt Servicing framework which promotes prudent borrowing practices. The SGD in the same time touched 1.28 and has sea-sawed between 1.25-1.28 mark.
So here is what I think is going to happen – The Singapore dollar would weaken towards the 1.30 mark against the USD. This would do well for the Singapore’s exports and the tourism industry. With the weakening of SGD there are rumours that the borrowing rates would slowly increase to keep the housing markets in check. I personally feel that the debt servicing framework is the first step to ensure residents don’t over leverage while buying a property and get in trouble when the interest rates move up.
So as always million dollar question remains what happens to the SGD INR 🙂
My take is that with INR at 60 and RBI showing resolve to not let is fall below and SGD hovering around the 1.26-1.27 mark the mean price for SGD would remain at 47. If the SGD weakens to 1.30 as expected and Rupee settles at 58 SGD INR should march back below the 45 mark.
However if the RBI measures fail to have an impact the Rupee could weaken to 63 against the USD, mainly on account of rising oil prices which are the biggest drain on India’s foreign reserve. If that scenarios plays out then their is little to stop the SGD INR to touch the 50 mark.
However if I look at the Big MC Index the Rupee is undervalued by almost 60% using the purchasing power parity – more on that another day
The sudden weakness in the Rupee has caught most of us by surprise and has caused Rupee to cross the 45 mark once again agsinst the Singapore Dollar.
I was expecting the pair to face stiff resistance at 44 mark and not breach the 44 mark any time soon (Sgd Inr expected trend till end of June 2013). The rationale being that SGD and INR would both move in tandem against the USD which would make SGD INR a stable pair.
However SGD strengthened very quickly from the 1.27 mark against USD to 1.25 in a matter of few days on its safe haven appeal with the fear over slowing global growth and Fed reconsidering the pace of Quantitative Easing (QE). My expectation was for SGD to touch 1.28 before starting to strengthen again
Indian Rupee (INR) on the other hand weakened against the USD with rising Gold Imports and expanding deficit and is nearing 57 against the USD as I write.
Its worrthwhile to look at the long term Implied Interest Rates trend line for SGD INR with such sudden changes
Its quite evident from the trend line that everytime SGD INR has crossed the trend line it tends to reverse back to the mean. Every cross over is a good opportunity to convert to INR for investment or other purposes.
Market rumours suggest INR would touch the 58 mark against the US dollar which could see SGD INR crossing the 46 mark which for me would be a great level to convert.
My suggestion as always is convert in small amounts to average out your conversion rate as its not possible to catch the top and bottom of any market.
We are well into second quarter of the year and its time for an update on the SGD INR projection.
Even with my best intentions to share thoughts on the pair as early as April its only now that I got sometime. Neverthless there have been some interesting developments in the past weeks which can impact the movement of the pair and its a good time to try and ascertain the trend in light of these.
On April 13 2013 the MAS maintatined its tight monetary policy stance even though the GDP unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter of the year and On 3 May 2013, the Indian Central bank lowered the key rates to 7.5%.
There was a expectation that with slowing GDP growth the MAS would allow the SGD to weaken against the other currencies and the USD-SGD might touch 1.28 mark. However with the inflationary pressures the monetary authority decided to keep the band and slope of policy bank unchanged.
On the other hand the RBI lowered the rates to boost growth in the slowing Indian economy.
Both the events are positive for the respective currencies and though INR has remained around 54 mark to USD, SGD moved from lows of 1.25 to 1.23 after the news.
With both the currencies showing some strength the SGD INR pair would remain stangnant in the 42-44 band. The pair has formed a strong resistance at the 44 level and I do not see it breaching this in the next few months.
With slowing growth the SGD might march back towards the 1.25 mark which would push the SGD INR pair towards the 42 levels.
So if you are looking to invest in India then a exchange rate of 43.5 – 44 would be a good rate to use
Its hard to believe that we are already in February of 2013 and that calls for me to keep up on my promise and share with you my thoughts on SGD INR movements in the near term.
The trend so far has been inline with what I had expected in Dec 2012 – The pair has maintained the range of 42-46 with a downward bias (Read more: SGD-INR: How does 2013 look like?) and trades at 42.99 as I write.
SGD INR made multiple attempts to breach the 45 mark but have been unsuccessful. In the meantime a few interesting developments have happened on the fundamental front.
RBI came out and cut the rates by 25 basis points to stroke growth and the financial markets have taken a more “risk on” approach. The former would result in NRE deposit rates being lowered in the long term and the latter would attract FII in to the Indian Markets chasing growth.
At the same time the Indian Finance minister has promised financial reforms and started with reducing the fuel subsidies which helps reduce the Indian Budget deficit. This is also positive for the Rupee.
On the SGD front the currency has lost 2% against the USD and now trades at 1.24 as compared to 1.22 late last year.
These factors combined have seen SGD INR soften below 43 mark.
The question which people ask often is that how low will the pair fall and will SGD INR reach 45 again?
My view is that in the short term the pair would increase and move to cross the Rs.44 mark – The US debt ceiling discussions are due soon and so is Indian budget for 2013.
The uncertainty on the policy front would result in INR weakening against the USD which would mean a weaker INR against the SGD.
The recent spike in Crude Oil prices would add to woes for Indian Rupee.
So in-case the recent drop of SGD/INR has left you scrambling like Oct 2012 then don’t panic – next few weeks should give you an opportunity to see the pair touching 44 again.
Enjoy the Holidays and wishing you a very Happy Chinese New Year!! Gong Xi Fa Chai
4 more days for 2012 to end and its a perfect time to analyse what would 2013 be like for the currency pair.
SGD-INR started the year 2012 at 41.28 and trades at 44.80 at the time of writing, a gain of 8.5%. The pair touched a low of 38.88 and highs of 45.11 during the year a volatility of appx 12%.
Let me take stock of how the past analysis has fared before delving into how the pair could move in 2013.
Continue reading SGD INR: How does 2013 look like?
Aditya Ladia 