MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s foreign exchange reserves fell for the fourth straight week to a three-month low of $560.94 billion as of the week ended Feb. 24, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statistical supplement showed on Friday.
The reserves were down by $330 million at the end of last week, after falling by a total of $15.5 billion in the previous three weeks, data showed. The reserves stood at $561.27 billion in the week to Feb. 17.
The central bank intervenes in the spot and forwards market to prevent runaway moves in the rupee’s exchange rate against the dollar. The RBI has said in the past that changes in reserves also stem from valuation gains or losses.
The RBI has likely been selling dollars to prevent the rupee from falling below 83 to the dollar, forex market participants told Reuters.
Last week, the rupee was marginally higher against the dollar, outperforming Asian peers, and traded in a thin range of 82.6100 to 82.8525.
The rupee ended at 81.9650 on Friday, posting its biggest weekly rise in nearly two months.
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Varun H K)
