The country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $ 1.739 billion to $ 582.037 billion in the week ended March 12. This information has been given in the data released on Friday by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Earlier, in the week ended March 5, the foreign exchange reserves had decreased by $ 4.255 billion to $ 580.299 billion. Foreign exchange reserves had reached a record high of $ 590.185 billion for the week ended 29 January 2021.
According to the Reserve Bank data, the increase in foreign currency assets (FCA) in the week ended March 12 has led to an increase in the money reserves. Foreign currency assets constitute a significant part of the total foreign exchange reserves. According to the Reserve Bank’s weekly data, FCA increased by $ 1.409 billion to $ 541.022 billion in the reporting period. The FCA is denominated in dollars, but includes other foreign currency assets such as the euro, pound and yen.
Gold currency reserves also increased
According to the data, the value of the country’s gold reserves increased by $ 336 million to $ 34.551 billion after last week’s decline. The special drawing right received by the country in the International Mundra Fund (IMF) decreased by $ 4 million to $ 1.501 billion. The reserve reserves with the IMF also decreased by 20 lakhs to $ 4.963 billion.
Reserve Bank remains the net buyer of the dollar
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continues to be a net buyer of the US dollar and made net purchases of $ 2.854 billion in January from the spot market. The monthly bulletin released by RBI for March 2021 states that in January, the central bank bought US $ 18.225 billion in the spot market and sold US $ 15.371 billion. RBI bought $ 3.991 billion on a gross basis in December 2020, Whereas in January 2020, it had bought $ 10.266 billion on a gross basis.
(With language input)