Indian rupee falls the most in 2 months

India’s rupee fell the most since November on speculation demand for riskier assets will be hurt as tensions in the Middle East intensify and poor Chinese economic data adds to concern over global growth.

Emerging-market stocks and currencies dropped Monday as manufacturing in China weakened for a fifth straight month, the longest such streak since 2009. Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran and expelled the Islamic Republic’s diplomats, a day after its embassy in Tehran was attacked to protest the Saudis’ execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. Indian stocks and bonds also retreated.

The rupee depreciated 0.5 percent to 66.47 a dollar as of 11:29 a.m. in Mumbai, poised for its biggest decline since Nov. 9, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. The yield on Indian sovereign bonds due May 2025 rose one basis point to 7.74 percent, prices from the central bank’s trading system show. The S&P BSE Sensex index of shares slumped 1.5 percent.

“The rupee’s fall is on account of worries over slowing world growth after weak Chinese data,” said Rohan Lasrado, Mumbai-based head of foreign-exchange trading at RBL Bank Ltd. “There’s a fair bit of concern over the developments in the Middle East and that is also weighing on the currency.”

The rupee weakened 4.7 percent in 2015 in its fifth straight annual decline, the longest stretch since 2001.-Bloomberg