The biggest weekly fall in foreign exchange reserves. India’s forex reserves declined by $11.173 billion to $606.475 billion as the currency came under pressure due to global geopolitical developments. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave this information in its data on Friday. Earlier, in the week ended March 25, foreign exchange reserves were down by $ 2.03 billion to $ 617.648 billion.
According to the RBI’s weekly data released on Friday, the fall in forex reserves was due to depletion of foreign currency assets (FCAs), which constitute a significant part of the total reserves. According to the data, FCA declined by $10.727 billion to $539.727 billion.
Foreign currency assets held in foreign exchange reserves, expressed in dollars, include the effects of appreciation or depreciation in non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen.
Usually, RBI intervenes in the market to reduce volatility in the money market by selling dollars from its foreign exchange reserves. Russia’s attack on Ukraine has created problems in the currency markets. Earlier, in the week ended March 11, there was the highest decrease of $ 9.6 billion. The value of gold reserves also declined by $507 million to $42.734 billion in the week under review.
In the reporting week, special drawing rights (SDRs) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose by $58 million to $18.879 billion. The country’s currency reserves kept with the IMF also increased by $ 4 million to $ 5.136 billion.