India’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $325 million to $560.94 billion in the week ending February 24, according to the latest figures published by the Reserve Bank of India.
This is the fourth consecutive weekly decline in foreign exchange reserves. In the previous week, global reserves had decreased by 5,680 million dollars, standing at 561,267 million dollars.
In October 2021, foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high of $645 billion. Since then, the reserves have been dwindling as the Reserve Bank of India uses them to defend the rupee amid pressures due to various factors, mainly world events, reported the PTI news agency.
According to the Reserve Bank of India’s Weekly Statistical Supplement, foreign currency assets, one of the main components of reserves, fell $166 million to $495.906 million.
Foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units, such as the euro, sterling, and yen, held in foreign exchange reserves. They are expressed in dollars.
The same downward trend was observed in gold reserves. Gold reserves fell again for the fourth consecutive week and fell by $66 million to $41,751.
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The Special Drawing Rights (DEG) also fell 80 million dollars, up to 18,187 million. The country’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund fell $12 million to $5.098 million in the reporting week, the PTI report said, citing RBI data.
This is the fourth consecutive weekly decline in foreign exchange reserves. In the previous week, global reserves had decreased by 5,680 million dollars, standing at 561,267 million dollars.
Previously, foreign exchange reserves had fallen by $8.31 billion to $566.94 billion in the week ended February 10, the biggest drop in more than 11 months. The decline, equivalent to 8.31%, was likely due to the central bank selling dollars to prevent the rupee from weakening above 83 against the US currency. According to Reuters, the Reserve Bank of India had been selling dollars in the non-delivery forward (NDF) market that week to prevent the rupee from falling.
By the week ending February 10, India’s foreign exchange reserves had fallen by $1.49 billion to reach $575.27 billion on February 3, ending a long-running upward trend. until then for three weeks. The country’s foreign exchange reserves had reached an all-time high of $645 billion in October 2021.
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