Mumbai, August 31: The Indian Rupee hit a fresh historic low of Rs 71 against the US dollar after opening at Rs 70.96 due to strong month-end dollar demand over rising fuel prices and foreign fund outflows. The Indian currency fell 22 paise in the early morning trade on Friday.

Forex dealers said that besides robust month-end demand for the American currency from oil importers, dollar's strength against its rival currencies on expectations of rising interest rates amid lingering Sino-US trade tensions, weighed on the domestic currency.

According to a PTI report, the slide was triggered by factors like crude prices hitting multi-month highs fuelled by supply shocks along with concerns over widening current account deficit (CAD).

This comes as fuel prices also continued to rise on Friday and both petrol and diesel hit fresh record highs. In Mumbai, petrol price was today hiked by 0.21 paisa a litre while diesel by 0.30 paisa per litre, taking the fuel prices to a new high. With the latest surge, petrol in Mumbai was priced at Rs 85.93/litre while the price of Diesel was Rs 74.54/litre, while in Delhi, petrol is Rs 78.52/litre while diesel is being sold at Rs 70.21/litre.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 31, 2018 09:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).