India's forex kitty jumps sharpest in 2 yrs, rises $15.26 bn to $653.96 bn

In the sharpest jump in over two years, the country's foreign exchange reserves increased by $15.267 billion to $653.966 billion during the week ended March 7, the RBI has said.

The overall reserves had dropped by $1.781 billion to $638.698 billion in the previous week.

The reserves had been on a declining trend recently due to revaluation along with forex market interventions by RBI to help reduce volatilities in the rupee. The forex reserves had increased to an all-time high of $704.885 billion at end-September 2024.

The sharp rise during the week under review is being attributed to the $10 billion forex swap undertaken by the central bank on February 28, when it bought dollars against rupee to inject liquidity in the system.

During the week, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by $13.993 billion to $557.282 billion, the data released on Friday showed.

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

Gold reserves decreased by $1.053 billion to $74.325 billion during the week, the RBI said.

The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were up by $212 million to $18.21 billion.

India's reserve position with the IMF was down by $69 million at $4.148 billion in the week, the RBI data showed.