There has been “much more flexibility” in the rupee’s exchange rate after its ‘de facto’ arrangement was reclassified last year as ‘crawl-like’ from ‘stabilised’, Krishna Srinivasan, Director of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Asia and Pacific Department, said.

While deferring to the Fund’s Article IV consultation team and its ‘mechanical’ exercise on the exchange rate, Srinivasan told The Indian Express in an interview that allowing the exchange rate to move is “better”, with interventions by many Asian countries not providing “much by way of relief”. He also discussed the importance of labour reskilling and Asia’s demographics. Edited excerpts:

The APAC regional economic outlook warns that creating jobs through the export-led, manufacturing model is becoming harder.…