Photo : Collected
India's foreign exchange reserves increased for the fifth straight week to reach a fresh all-time high of $642.631 billion in the week ending on March 22, as per data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The reserves jumped by $139 million in the reporting week. Gold reserves during the week rose from $347 million to $51.487 billion.
India's foreign currency assets (FCA), the biggest component of the forex reserves, though, declined by $123 million to $568.264 billion, the central bank's weekly statistical data showed.
Prior to the week that ended on March 22, the foreign exchange kitty rose by $6.396 billion. In the calendar year 2023, the RBI added about $58 billion to its foreign exchange kitty.
In 2022, India's forex kitty slumped by $71 billion cumulatively.
In October 2021, the country's foreign exchange reserves last touched their all-time high. Much of the decline after that could be attributed to a rise in the cost of imported goods in 2022.
Forex reserves are assets that are held by a nation's central bank or monetary authority. It is generally held in reserve currencies, usually the US Dollar and, to a lesser degree, the Euro, Japanese Yen, and Pound Sterling.
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