MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $300 million to a more than three-month high of $654.27 billion as of March 14, data released by the central bank on Friday showed.
They had risen by $15.3 billion in the prior week, the biggest jump since August 2021.
Changes in foreign currency assets are caused by the central bank’s intervention in the forex market as well as the appreciation or depreciation of foreign assets held in the reserves.
The rupee and most Asian currencies have been volatile due to an uncertain global risk environment, gripped by uncertainties surrounding global trade and growth from constant changes in U.S. tariff plans.
The RBI has repeatedly curtailed volatility in the forex market through dollar sales in the spot market and has also conducted dollar-rupee buy-sell swaps to help boost rupee liquidity in the banking system.
In the week to which the reserves data pertains, the rupee depreciated 0.1% week-on-week.
The currency ended at 85.9725 on Friday. It rose to a 10-week high of 85.9375 during Friday’s session and gained 1.2% in the week. [INR=]
Foreign exchange reserves include India’s Reserve tranche position at the International Monetary Fund.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)
———————————————————
March 14 March 07
2025 2025
———————————————————
Foreign currency assets 557,186 557,282
Gold 74,391 74,325
SDRs 18,262 18,210
Reserve Tranche Position 4,431 4,148
———————————————————-
Total 654,271 653,966
———————————————————-
Source text: (https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx)
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
