The Indian rupee strengthened to 95.9 per dollar from the record-low of 97.15 on May 19th after the Reserve Bank of India continued to intervene on currency markets and support the currency from it's slide this year. The central bank sold dollars to state banks through the third week of the month. This outweighed the outflows of foreign exchange, initially stemming from energy importers following the surge in oil prices due to the war in the Middle East, then magnified by selling from Indian equity and bond investors that wanted to reduce rupee positions. Besides selling dollars, officials from the RBI reportedly considered hiking interest rates, as soon as next meeting, to prevent further deprecation and risks to the foreign currency reserves. However, a group of policymakers also advocated against raising rates, opting instead for more currency interventions and policy to stimulate dollar inflows.