By: Vivek J
January 4 2023
Misleading: The Indian Rupee was the worst-performing Asian currency in 2022.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict Misleading
Indian Rupee is one of the worst-performing Asian currencies after the Japanese Yen among the major Asian economies.
Claim ID 53f33dd7
Context
A post shared on social media claims that the Indian Rupee was the worst-performing Asian currency in 2022. Several such social media posts were shared in the first days of January 2023, with some media reports claiming the same. However, we found that there are some discrepancies in the claim made by these social media posts and news reports.
In Fact
On December 30, 2022, Reuters published an article titled "Indian Rupee ends 2022 as worst-performing Asian currency." Subsequently, other media outlets also reported the same, citing the Reuters report. Social media users also started sharing screenshots of such reports about the Indian Rupee being the worst performer among Asian currencies.
However, Reuters published a corrected version of their initial report later on December 30. The new version of the report is titled "Indian Rupee ends down more than 10% in 2022, worst since 2013." The new report also noted that the Japanese Yen was the worst-performing currency, with a slump of around 12 percent, followed by the Indian Rupee, which fell by 10.14 percent against the U.S. Dollar in 2022. The updated article features a disclaimer that says, "This story has been corrected to change the headline, the quantum of rupee's fall in paragraph 1, and delete the graphic."
According to Reuters, the Indian Rupee closed at 74.33 against the U.S. Dollar in 2021, while it closed at 82.72 in December 2022.
Meanwhile, some of the media outlets updated their initial publication, and some of them didn't. This led to confusion among social media users who continued to share the initial reports of the Indian Rupee being the worst-performing Asian currency in 2022.
The spread of the misrepresented information on social media was caused by the initial inaccurate Reuters report. There have been no other assessments claiming that the Indian Rupee was the worst Asian currency in 2022. The recent slump of the Indian Rupee against the U.S. Dollar can be attributed to several factors like the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that took oil prices to record heights, the U.S. Federal Reserve hiking rates to beat inflation, high volatility in the forex markets, recession in some countries and fears of a possible recession in India.
It must be noted that we have referred to the Indian Rupee as the second worst-performing Asian currency based on the Reuters analysis. Currencies of other Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Pakistan have slumped more than Indian Rupee and the Japanese Yen due to some geopolitical and economic instabilities. However, among major economies in Asia with a comparatively good market appreciation, the Yen and INR are among the worst performers.
The Verdict
Incorrect information that originated from a Reuters article dated December 30, 2022, which was corrected on the same day, led social media users to share posts claiming that the Indian Rupee was Asia's worst-performing currency in 2022. However, the updated report clarifies that the Japanese Yen was the worst performer in 2022, with 12 percent, followed by the Indian Rupee, which is also among the worst performers and fell by 10.14 percent against the USD. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.