India’s forex reserves drop by $329 mln to $578.45 bln

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday that India’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $329 million to $578.45 billion for the week ending March 31, due to a decline in gold reserves.

The forex index rose significantly in the two weeks prior to the reports, rising by $5.977 billion to $578.778 billion for the week ending March 24.

For fiscal year ’23, cats’ total decreased by $28.86 billion.

It should be noted that in October 2021, the country’s foreign exchange fund reached an all-time high of $645 billion.

Reserves were running low as the central bank deployed the fund to defend the rupee amid pressure stemming in large part from global developments.

foreign currency assets

For the week ending March 31, foreign currency assets, a major component of reserves, fell by $36 million to $509.69 billion, according to the weekly statistical supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.

Expressed in dollars, foreign currency assets include the effect of the appreciation or depreciation of non-US units such as the euro, pound and yen held in foreign exchange reserves.

The Reserve Bank of India said gold reserves fell by $279 million to $45.20 billion.

The central bank said special drawing rights fell $27 million to $18.392 billion.

Central bank data showed that the country’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund rose by $14 million to $5.165 billion in the reporting week.