MUMBAI: India’s foreign exchange reserves, which had seen a seven-week winning streak, stood at $617.30 billion as of Jan. 5, easing from near 22-month highs, data from the central bank showed on Friday.

The reserves witnessed the steepest decline in nearly five months, falling $5.9 billion for the reported week, following a cumulative increase of $32.9 billion in the preceding seven weeks.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervenes in the foreign exchange market to curb excess volatility in the rupee.

Changes in foreign currency assets include the impact of the RBI’s intervention as well as the appreciation or depreciation of foreign assets held in the reserves.

India’s forex reserves rise for seventh week, hit near 22-month high

Foreign exchange reserves also include India’s reserve tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.

For the reported week, the rupee traded in a narrow range of 83.12-83.3475 against the dollar, and logged marginal weekly gains.

The domestic currency settled at 82.9225 on Friday, after climbing to a near four-month high in the session, and gained 0.3% for this week.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)
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                              Jan 05       Dec 29
                               2024         2023
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Foreign currency assets      546,650      551,615
Gold                          47,489       48,328
SDRs                          18,298       18,365
Reserve Tranche Position       4,866        4,892
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Total                        617,303      623,200
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