RBI continues to be net purchaser of dollars; buys USD 10.27 bn in Jan

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continued to be a net purchaser of the US dollar after it bought USD 10.27 billion in January on a net basis from the spot market, recent RBI data showed.

In the reporting month, the RBI had bought USD 11.49 billion of the US currency and sold USD 1.22 billion in the spot market.

In December, the RBI had bought a net of USD 4.36 billion of the greenback. It had bought USD 5.37 billion while sold USD 1.01 billion of dollars, the data showed.

In January last year, the RBI had net purchased USD 293 million after it bought USD 1.02 billion from the spot market and sold USD 732 million.

In 2018-19, the apex bank was a net seller of dollars, offloading USD 15.38 billion in the spot market. It had bought USD 40.80 billion and sold USD 56.18 billion in the year to March 2019.

In 2017-18, the RBI had net purchased USD 33.689 billion from the spot market, taking its total dollar purchase to USD 52.07 billion and sold only USD 18.379 billion.

In the forward dollar market, the outstanding sales at the end of January was USD 1.21 billion, compared to a sale of USD 1.87 billion in December, the data showed.