Rupee’s year-end rally heralds a brighter 2019 as oil slumps

Tumbling oil prices have delivered an early Christmas present to India’s currency market, with the rally that’s put the rupee on course for its best quarter since March 2017 seen extending into the new year. That’s the message from strategists coming off a largely painful 2018, as elevated energy costs and a strong dollar combined to make the rupee Asia’s worst performer. The slump in crude and hopes of a slowdown in the pace of tightening by the Federal Reserve mean the high-yielding currency may resume its winning ways next year.