The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to continue defending the rupee despite speculation that governor Sanjay Malhotra might take a different approach. The rupee has weakened by about 3.5 percent against the US dollar, reaching 86.88 on March 7. The Chinese Yuan and Japanese Yen saw a milder depreciation of 1.7 and 0.7 percent, respectively. Despite RBI’s interventions, experts believe that external factors, such as a stronger can continue to put downward pressure on theRupee. However, some recent measures by the central bank coupled with fallout of US’ tariffs have brought some relief. The government remains confident that the rupees will recover to December levels, backed by India’s ample foreign exchange reserves. The overall forex kitty had jumped by $4.758 billion to $640.479 billion in the previous reporting week, according to the RBI. The foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, decreased by $493 million to $543.35 billion, an PTI report citing RBI data said.