"The rupee is strong despite some nominal depreciation," he said, adding that as of October 18, rupee had appreciated against euro 4.4 per cent, sterling pound 3.5 per cent, Japanese yen 4.3 per cent and only against dollar it has depreciated by 3.1 per cent."
"If you go by real effective exchange rate, rupee is still a strong currency," Chidambaram said, inaugurating the annual general meeting of Assocham.
The finance minister also said that the country was witnessing strong inflows from foreign institutional investors, who he noted were here to "stay for long."
The "positive sign" is that FII inflows from April-August this year has been $4.3 billion and in whole of 2005 has been $8.52 billion.
"Many interlocutors tell me FIIs are here to stay," he said, adding that as far as FDI flows were concerned, they recorded 20 per cent growth at $1.9 billion during April-August this year and in calendar 2005 the flow was $2.57 billion recording 14 per cent growth, highest since 2000-01.
However, the flip side of the FDI inflow is that "we get fraction of what China gets," Chidambaram said.
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