Mumbai :  The rupee weakened by 36 paise to 70.04 against the US dollar in opening trade Tuesday on rising crude prices and some demand for the American currency from importers.

The rupee opened weak at 69.83 at the interbank forex market against its previous close of 69.68 per dollar.

It moved in range of 70.06 per dollar to 69.83 per dollar in early trade and was trading at 70.04, showing a fall of 36 paise against the greenback.

Brent crude futures, the international oil benchmark was trading 0.23 per cent higher at USD 57.46 per barrel.

The rupee weakened even after the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released positive advanced estimates of national income for 2018-19.

The domestic economy is expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2018-19 against 6.7 per cent in the previous fiscal mainly.

PTI

 8/1/2019