India’s forex reserves contracted by USD 3.7 billion to USD 701.18 billion as of October 4, data shared by the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday.
Foreign currency assets (FCAs) dipped by USD 3.51 billion to USD 612.6 billion, said the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI.
Expressed in dollar terms, the FCAs include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
RBI data said the gold reserves decreased by USD 40 million to USD 65.76 billion. Special drawing rights (SDRs) also saw a marginal dip by USD 123 million to stand at USD 18.43 billion.
Reserve position in the IMF contracted by USD 35 million to USD 4.35 billion.
It is to be noted that from time to time, RBI intervenes in the market through liquidity management, including through the selling of dollars.
The RBI closely monitors the foreign exchange markets and intervenes only to maintain orderly market conditions by containing excessive volatility in the exchange rate.
Recently, India became the fourth economy in the world to surpass 700 billion US dollars in foreign reserves, joining China, Japan, and Switzerland.
Notably, India’s foreign exchange reserves surged by 12.588 billion dollars to touch a new all-time high of 704.885 billion dollars for the week ending September 27.
In the previous week ended September 20, the forex reserves jumped by USD 2.8 billion to USD 692.3 billion.