When U.S. interest rates rise, which they are at the moment, emerging markets like India run smack into a problem. Today, India’s currency hit a record low, amid moves by the central bank there to limit the amount of cash that Indian business can send out of the country. One U.S. dollar is currently worth about 62 rupees, compared to 54 rupees back in the Spring. It’s part of a global shift as the American, Japanese, and European economies emerge from the Great Recession. 

“There has been panic in the markets today,” says the BBC’s Rahul Tandon in Calcutta. “There is a complete lack of confidence in the India economy.”

Foreign investors, Tandon says, “are looking at the Indian economy, they’re looking at high inflation, they’re looking at that current account deficit, and they’re thinking it’s time to put their money elsewhere.”