The Indian rupee slumped to a new all-time low against the U.S. dollar Tuesday as importers continued to scoop up the greenback on fears that the local currency would weaken further in the absence of aggressive central bank intervention.

The dollar was quoting at INR52.48 at 0339 GMT, compared with its previous record low of INR52.1950 on March 3, 2009.

The Indian rupee has of late been Asia's worst-performing currency, weakening 17% against the dollar since April.

A wave of risk aversion sparked by the crisis in Europe has unnerved investors concerned also about India's high inflation, slowing economic growth and gaping fiscal deficit.

Sudeep Jain

• indian [´indiən] a.印度的 n.印度人 (初中英语单词)
• absence [´æbsəns] n.不在，缺席；缺乏 (初中英语单词)
• previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
• currency [´kʌrənsi] n.通货；通用；货币 (高中英语单词)
• weaken [´wi:kən] v.(使)弱化；衰弱；稀薄 (高中英语单词)
• crisis [´kraisis] n.转折点；危机 (高中英语单词)
• concerned [kən´sə:nd] a.有关的；担心的 (高中英语单词)
• aggressive [ə´gresiv] a.进攻的；侵略的 (英语四级单词)
• fiscal [´fiskəl] a.财政的 (英语六级单词)