The Indian rupee slipped below the 72 mark for the first time ever on Thursday even as US dollar eased a bit in global markets.The local currency has fallen more than 12 per cent on a year-to date basis, making it one of the worst-performing currencies among emerging markets.Earlier in the day, the rupee resumed higher at 71.65 against yesterday's closing of 71.75 the interbank foreign exchange market.A Reuters report said that the Reserve Bank of India was not spotted intervening after the rupee pierced the 72 level. It had been suspected of selling dollars earlier in the day.The rupee was trading 29 paise down at 72.05 at around 12.45 pm (IST).Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser at SBI said the rupee depreciation of 13 per cent in 2018 and around 7 per cent since June 2018 when the RBI started hiking rates is largely in consonance will dollar strengthening against all currencies.“The rupee could not have been immune to such and hence the current depreciation was long overdue and trends in NDF market (rupee at 75 and implied 1 year yield at 7.7 per cent) suggest the pain might not be just over yet.” he added.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday attributed the fall in rupee to global factors and said there was no need for panic or knee-jerk reactions. He further said the RBI is doing whatever is necessary to deal with the situation.Meanwhile, a Reuters poll on Thursday showed that the bearish bets that rupee will weaken further rose to their highest level in five years over the past two weeks.The rupee had its worst month in three years in August as crude rallied on speculation sanctions on Iran will shrink global supplies. The crude import bill for the world’s fastest-growing oil user surged 76 per cent in July from a year earlier to $10.2 billion. That pushed up the trade deficit to $18 billion, the most in five years, a Bloomberg report said.India imports nearly 83 per cent of its crude oil requirement.