MUMBAI: India’s foreign exchange reserves fell for the first time in eight weeks, coming off record highs to decline to $643.16 billion as of Apr. 12, data from the central bank showed on Friday.

The reserves fell by $5.4 billion in the reporting week, the steepest fall in over three months. They had risen by a total of $32.5 billion in the prior seven weeks.

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

The RBI has been selling dollars in the spot forex market over the last few sessions to prevent a large-scale depreciation in the rupee amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and worries over delayed rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, Reuters reported.

Changes in foreign currency assets are caused by 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 consecutive week to record high

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

In the week that the foreign exchange data pertains, the rupee had fallen 0.1% against the dollar, and traded in a range of 83.15 to 83.4250.

The domestic currency settled at 83.47 on Friday, after hitting a record low of 83.5750 earlier in the session. The rupee ended marginally lower for this week.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)----------------------------------------------------                            April 12     April 05                               2024         2024---------------------------------------------------Foreign currency assets      564,653      571,166Gold                          55,798       54,558SDRs                          18,077       18,170Reserve Tranche Position       4,634        4,669---------------------------------------------------Total                        643,162      648,562---------------------------------------------------