BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s foreign exchange reserves rose for the fifth straight week, reaching an over 20-month high of $615.97 billion as of Dec. 15, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Friday.
The reserves rose by $9.1 billion in the reporting week, after climbing by a total of $16.5 billion in the prior four weeks.
Indian debt and equity markets have seen net inflows of $9.2 billion so far in December, after receiving $2.9 billion in November.
Central bank intervention in forex markets along with valuation changes impact reserves.
Changes in foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of other currencies held in its reserves.
Foreign exchange reserves also include India’s Reserve Tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.
For the week the forex reserves data pertains, the rupee traded in between 82.9400 and 83.4050 against the dollar, and logged its biggest weekly gain since Aug. 25.
The currency settled at 83.14 on Friday, and posted its biggest weekly loss in over two months.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)
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Dec 15 Dec 08
2023 2023
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Foreign currency assets 545,048 536,699
Gold 47,577 47,130
SDRs 18,323 18,188
Reserve Tranche Position 5,023 4,842
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Total 615,971 606,859
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Source text: (https://bit.ly/3viYUYn)
((India Headline News Team; +91 80 6749 1310))
(Reporting by Nishit Navin in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
