MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bought $7.37 billion in the spot foreign exchange market in May, showed data released on Monday as part of the central bank’s monthly bulletin. The RBI did not sell any dollars in the reported month, the data showed. In April, the central bank had bought a net of $7.70 billion in the spot market. The Indian rupee depreciated by over 1% against the dollar in May. The unit traded in a range of 81.65 to 82.85. The RBI’s net outstanding forward purchase stood at $19.27 billion as of end-May, compared with a net purchase of $19.93 billion in April, data showed.
The central bank intervenes in the spot and forwards market to curb exchange rate volatility. The currency was at 82.04 to the dollar on Monday.
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
