Indian expats in UAE not as excited with rupee fall as 2013
05:36AM Sun 21 Dec, 2014
Dubai: Hema, a middle income Indian expat in the UAE, jumped with happiness when rupee hit a record low last year. She repatriated Dh200,000 to India and cleared off her home loan, bought a new flat in India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore and deposited the rest of the amount in a government bank for a little less than 10 per cent in a fixed deposit scheme.
“When the rupee fell, I took a personal loan locally, made use of the interest rate arbitrage and the record deprecation to the fullest extent possible and I paid off my home loan in India, for which I was paying 13 per cent,” said Hema, a Sharjah-based bank employee.
But she is not too enthused with the current fall in the rupee. “Last year was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. I did many investments in one go as we’d a good 3 months to react. But now the depreciation has been quick, but people say the currency would recover very fast unlike last time,” said Hema, who didn’t wish to disclose her last name.
Like Hema, many Indian expats in the UAE are not as excited with the current weakness in the rupee compared to the third quarter of last year.
Gulf News
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