RBI turns net seller of US dollars in February, sells $1.219 billion

The Reserve Bank turned net seller of the US dollar in February 2021, offloading $1.219 billion in the spot market, RBI data showed on Monday

The Reserve Bank turned net seller of the US dollar in February 2021, offloading USD 1.219 billion in the spot market, RBI data showed on Monday.

This is for the second time in the financial year 2020-21 when the central bank sold the US currency in the spot market on a net basis. In April 2020, RBI had net sold USD 1.142 billion. Since then, it remained a net purchaser for straight nine months till January 2021.

During February 2021, RBI bought USD 23.352 billion and sold USD 24.571 billion in the spot market, the central bank said in its monthly bulletin for April 2021.

In the same month of 2020, RBI had net purchased USD 9.144 billion.

In FY 2019-20, the central bank had net purchased USD 45.097 billion. It had bought USD 72.205 billion and sold USD 27.108 billion in the spot market.

In the forward dollar market, the outstanding net purchase at the end of February 2021 was USD 73.201 billion, compared with net purchase of USD 47.383 billion in January, the data showed.