A US dollar cost ₹43.93 in April 2004 and ₹95.82 in July 2026.
The Reserve Bank keeps two more measures of the rupee. Each answers a different question.
- 01Rupees per dollar
- 02A basket of 40 currencies (NEER)
- 03Indian goods, priced abroad (REER)
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The Reserve Bank prices the rupee against 40 currencies at once; the US dollar is 9.1% of the basket
Each currency is weighted by its share of India’s trade, much as a stock index weighs its companies.
Trade weights for 2015-16, the index’s base year. Point at a region or a partner, here or on the globe.
A US dollar cost ₹95.82 in July 2026, 2.2x the ₹43.93 of April 2004
Most of the rise came in steps. Point at a number on the line for the event behind it.
But the dollar is one of the 40 currencies India trades in. Next, the rupee against all of them.
In April 2004, ₹100 bought a basket holding a little of each of the 40 currencies
Each coin is one partner’s currency, as large as its trade weight: the euro largest, then the yuan, the dirham and the dollar. Point at a coin to see which it is.
By July 2026 the same basket cost ₹178; dollars worth ₹100 in 2004 cost ₹218
The basket rose less because the dollar also rose against most of the other 39 currencies in it.
Dollars have cost more than the basket since November 2014; by July 2026, 22.8% more
In 2014-15 the dollar rose 23% against other major currencies, on a robust US recovery while the euro zone and Japan were weak (RBI Annual Report 2014-15, para II.4.2 ↗).
Seen from the rupee, the dollar rose most of the four: 218, against 208 for the euro, 162 for the pound and 145 for the yen
- The ₹ at the centre is the rupee; each currency sits as far out as it costs, from 100 on the dashed ring in April 2004.
- The ring of 40 coins is the basket, at 178 by July 2026.
- The months play; pause or drag to any month.
Over the same years, India’s prices rose 79.4% more than its partners’
The same goods, priced in India and abroad, each in its own currency: 100 on both sides in April 2004, 179 against 100 by July 2026. These are index numbers, not rupees.
India’s prices against its partners’ rose almost every year, from 100 to 179
So, two halves: partners’ currencies cost 77.6% more rupees; Indian prices rose 79.4% more than theirs. For a shop abroad, which wins?
Did Indian shoes get cheaper for a shop abroad?
In 2004 a shop abroad paid 100, in its own currency, for a batch of shoes made in India:
Compared with everything else the shop buys, what does the batch cost now?
Indian prices and the basket were level again by July 2026, 179 and 178, after their widest gap in November 2024: 180 against 151
Where the terracotta line (India’s prices) runs above the purple (the basket), Indian goods cost more abroad.
Put together, Indian goods cost buyers abroad 101 in July 2026, for 100 in April 2004
179 ÷ 178 × 100 ≈ 101. In 268 months it never left the shaded band, 95 to 119.
Adjusted for prices, the basket’s ring comes back from 178 to 101, almost where it began
The four planets fade: DBIE carries no price adjustment for each country on its own.
Within the band, Indian goods abroad rose to 119 in November 2024 and fell to 98 by May 2026
Indian prices barely moved (180, then 176); partners’ currencies went from ₹151 to ₹179, through the US tariffs and the West Asia conflict (7 and 8 on the dollar chart).
From April 2004 to July 2026, the dollar rate rose 2.2x and the basket 1.8x, while what Indian goods cost abroad went from 100 to 101
Each measure answers a different question. The small lines share one scale, each starting at 100; turn a card over to see how it is measured.
What does a dollar cost?
₹43.93→₹95.82
April 2004 to July 2026
For anyone paying in dollars: a student’s fees, an import bill, a holiday. Part of every move is the dollar’s own.
What do India’s 40 trading partners’ currencies cost, all at once?
₹100→₹178
April 2004 to July 2026
The rupee against the whole world it trades with, each currency weighted by trade: the NEER.
Did Indian goods get cheaper for the countries that buy them?
100→101
April 2004 to July 2026
The basket and India’s prices together: the REER. Over 22 years the two halves cancel; in between, they swing.
The dollar rate answers what a dollar costs; the REER answers what Indian goods cost abroad, and over 22 years that barely moved
The Reserve Bank publishes the NEER and the REER as indicators of external competitiveness (RBI Bulletin, Dec 2005 ↗).
For economists: the decomposition, year by year
Each year’s change in the real rate is the change in the nominal rate plus the change in relative prices, exactly, in logs: Δ ln REER = Δ ln NEER + Δ ln(REER ÷ NEER). Annual averages of the monthly 40-currency trade-weighted indices; log points, ×100. A positive price term means India’s prices rose faster than its partners’.
| Year | Nominal | Prices | Real |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-06 | 2.2 | 0.1 | 2.3 |
| 2006-07 | -4.6 | 3.1 | -1.5 |
| 2007-08 | 7.0 | 1.0 | 8.0 |
| 2008-09 | -11.5 | 2.4 | -9.1 |
| 2009-10 | -2.7 | 6.9 | 4.2 |
| 2010-11 | 2.8 | 5.2 | 8.1 |
| 2011-12 | -6.8 | 4.7 | -2.1 |
| 2012-13 | -10.9 | 6.6 | -4.4 |
| 2013-14 | -8.0 | 5.8 | -2.3 |
| 2014-15 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 5.4 |
| 2015-16 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 2.8 |
| 2016-17 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| 2017-18 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 |
| 2018-19 | -5.7 | 0.5 | -5.2 |
| 2019-20 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.6 |
| 2020-21 | -4.3 | 4.7 | 0.4 |
| 2021-22 | -0.9 | 2.0 | 1.2 |
| 2022-23 | -2.1 | 0.2 | -1.8 |
| 2023-24 | -0.5 | 1.5 | 1.0 |
| 2024-25 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 1.4 |
| 2025-26 | -7.2 | -0.7 | -7.9 |
SOURCES
Reserve Bank of India, indices of the nominal and real effective exchange rate of the Indian rupee, monthly, base 2015-16 = 100, for the 40-currency basket with trade and with export weights and the 6-currency basket with trade weights, April 2004 to July 2026; the rupee’s monthly average and financial-year average rates against the US dollar; and its daily reference rate; all as published on DBIE (scraped 29-09-2026). The basket weights are from Reserve Bank of India Bulletin, January 2021 (article), Table 1.
FURTHER READING
Guria and Sokal (2021). Effective exchange rate indices of the Indian rupee. RBI Bulletin, January 2021.
The revision to the 40-currency basket and the 2015-16 base: how partners are chosen, how weights are set, and why the series begins in 2004-05.
Reserve Bank of India (2005). Revision of nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) and real effective exchange rate (REER) indices. RBI Bulletin, December 2005.
The earlier 36-currency and 6-currency indices and their method.
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METHOD
NEER and REER, in brief. The NEER (nominal effective exchange rate) is the rupee against a basket of 40 currencies, each weighted by its share of India’s trade. The REER (real effective exchange rate) is the NEER adjusted for consumer prices in India against those in the same 40 countries: what Indian goods cost buyers abroad. On the Reserve Bank’s indices a higher number means a stronger rupee (NEER) or Indian goods costing more abroad (REER). The story shows the NEER turned round, as the rupee cost of the basket, so that it rises when the rupee weakens, as the dollar rate does.
The indices. The NEER is a weighted geometric average of the rupee’s exchange rates against the 40 currencies, as an index; the REER multiplies it by the ratio of India’s consumer prices to its partners’ consumer prices, weighted the same way. A higher index is a stronger rupee. The 2015-16 series begins in April 2004; the Reserve Bank did not carry it further back, and it is not joined here to the older bases.
The price term. REER ÷ NEER × 100 is the relative price the two indices imply. It is derived here, not published. Because both indices use the same weights, ln REER = ln NEER + ln(REER ÷ NEER) holds exactly, and the processor checks it for every month.
The opening’s charts. The charts are monthly. The dollar chart is in rupees for one US dollar, monthly averages. The others are prices that start at 100 in April 2004, so that every line rises the same way: the basket of 40 currencies is the NEER turned into a price (its first value over each month’s, × 100); dollars that were worth ₹100 in April 2004 are the dollar rate over its first value; India’s prices against its partners’ are REER ÷ NEER over their first value; and what Indian goods cost abroad is the REER over its first value. The last is exactly the third over the second. The Reserve Bank’s own indices (2015-16 = 100) are in the tooltips.
The basket of coins. Each coin is one partner’s currency, its size following the currency’s trade weight in 2015-16. The rupee notes are illustrations in the colours of the current series, not reproductions. The basket that cost ₹100 in April 2004 costs ₹178 in July 2026; the wallet pays ₹180 and takes ₹2 back.
What 100 means on the Reserve Bank’s indices. On the indices as the Reserve Bank publishes them, 100 is the rupee’s value in the base year, 2015-16. It is not a measure of fair value: a reading below 100 says the rupee’s value was lower than in 2015-16, not that it was lower than it should be. The opening restates every index as a price from 100 in April 2004, so its 100s mean April 2004, not 2015-16.
The shoes. The batch of shoes is an illustration of the real effective exchange rate, not a price from any survey. Its price today, where it cost 100 in 2004, is the REER’s change: 101 on the first month against the latest (90.9 to 91.8), 109 on the first full year’s average against the latest’s (89.2 to 97.4). It is the 40-currency average: a typical shop across India’s partners, in its own currency. Any one partner’s currency, the dollar included, has its own story.
The events. The numbered events on the dollar chart are those behind its sharpest moves, each described from a Reserve Bank or Government of India document (Annual Reports, the Monetary Policy Report, the Economic Survey) that the note links to. Rupee levels in a note that its source does not give are this series’ monthly averages. They mark what the official accounts name; they are not a full explanation of every move.
Which months. The story compares April 2004, the first month of the series, with July 2026, the latest. Other ends give other answers: on financial-year averages the REER went from 89.2 in 2004-05 to 97.4 in 2025-26 and the NEER from 133.8 to 84.7. That is why the story leans on the band the REER stayed in, 86.2 (April 2009) to 108.0 (November 2024), rather than on its two ends alone. Recent months are provisional and may be revised.
The dollar. Monthly averages of the Reserve Bank’s reference rate. DBIE’s monthly table has no figure for May 2026 or July 2026; those months are the average of that month’s daily reference rates, which reproduces every one of the 40 months since February 2023 that both tables carry. Yearly figures are the Reserve Bank’s financial-year averages. On the thread the dollar line starts at the NEER’s first value so the two changes can be compared; it is a rebased index, not a second scale.
The weights and the globe. The 40 partners’ trade weights for 2015-16 are from the Reserve Bank’s January 2021 Bulletin, not from DBIE. The Reserve Bank revises the weights each year; the indices use each year’s own. On the globe a partner’s colour deepens with its weight; the euro area is its 19 members of 2015-16, and each arc ends at a partner’s capital (the euro area at Frankfurt). India’s outline is the Survey of India’s; other borders are Natural Earth’s.
Nothing typed by hand. Every number here is read from the DBIE series by a program that checks the months, the base year and the identity every time it runs. The only figures typed in are the basket weights, from the publication named above.