Rupee falls below 82 against US dollar after RBI hits pause on rate hikes

MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indian rupee declined against the U.S. dollar after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unexpectedly kept the repo rate unchanged.

The rupee declined to an intraday low of at 82.06 per U.S. dollar versus 81.88 before the RBI policy announcement.

The central bank surprised markets by keeping the key policy rate at 6.50%. A large majority of economists, 49 of 62, had said the RBI would lift its repo rate by 25 basis points to a seven-year high of 6.75%.

(Reporting by Nimesh Vora; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)