India's forex reserves climb past $700 billion on robust inflows
- The reserves jumped $14.1 billion week-on-week
MUMBAI: India’s foreign exchange reserves rose to a four-month high of $707 billion as of August 7, bolstered by robust inflows under policy measures to strengthen India’s balance of payments.
The reserves jumped $14.1 billion week-on-week, the largest rise since January, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. The rise was led by a $9.9 billion weekly gain in the central bank’s foreign currency assets.
The central bank’s FX pile has been rising over the last six weeks, which have witnessed an accretion of about $40 billion.
Measures to draw dollar inflows announced in June include discounted hedging facilities for overseas borrowings by state-run firms and banks alongside tax cuts on foreign investments in government bonds and a free-of-cost hedging facility for banks to raise overseas FX deposits.
Between June 8 and July 31, the swap facilities drew flows worth over $40 billion while foreign investors net purchased Indian government bonds worth over $2.5 billion under the so-called fully accessible route.
Changes in foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of other currencies held in reserves.
India’s forex reserves hit three-month peak, see biggest weekly rise in six months
Analysts have said that recent central bank interventions to defend the rupee have likely offset the impact of some of the overseas dollar inflows.
Foreign exchange reserves include India’s Reserve Tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.
Foreign exchange reserves (in million U.S. dollars)
Aug 07 July 31
2026 2026
Foreign currency assets 574,625 564,680
Gold 108,738 104,743
SDRs 18,745 18,666
Reserve Tranche Position 4,894 4,778
Total 707,002 692,866
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