India’s forex reserves post steepest weekly decline in over 6 months, now at $594.89bn

MUMBAI: India’s foreign exchange reserves declined to a near two-month low of $594.89 billion as of Aug. 18 and posted their steepest weekly fall in more than six months, data from the country’s central bank showed on Friday.

They fell by $7.27 billion from the prior week, the sharpest decline since the week ended Feb. 10.

The changes in foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effects of appreciation or depreciation of other currencies held in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reserves.

The forex reserves include India’s Reserve Tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.

The RBI also intervenes in the spot and forwards markets to prevent runaway moves in the rupee.

In the week for which the forex reserves data pertains, the rupee dropped to a 10-month low of 83.16 against the U.S. dollar, prompting intervention from the RBI, as per traders.

Earlier this week, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das reiterated that the central bank has no specific target for the rupee.

The currency ended at 82.6475 on Friday, rising more than 0.5% for the week and logging its best weekly performance since July 14.

     FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)
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                              Aug 18       Aug 11
                               2023         2023
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Foreign currency assets      527,786      534,399
Gold                          43,824       44,340
SDRs                          18,205       18,324
Reserve Tranche Position       5,072        5,098
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Total                        594,888      602,161
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