India’s Forex reserves increased by $4.54 billion to $674.66 billion as of August 16, as per data released by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday.
Preciously, the reserves had dipped by $4.8 billion to $670.12 billion for the week ending August 9.
According to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI, Foreign currency assets (FCAs) grew by $3.61 billion to $591.57 billion. 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.
Further gold reserves increased by $865 million to $601.04 billion as of August 16. Gold reserves, too saw a surge of $865 million to $60.1billion. Meanwhile, SDRs for the above mentioned week were up by $60 million to stand at $18.34 billion.
Moreover, Reserve position in the IMF was up by $12 million to $4.65 billion.
Forex reserves had touched an all time high of $675 billion as of August 2, but had fallen $4.8 billion on August 9. The RBI, from time to time, intervenes in the market through liquidity management, including through the selling of dollars, with a view to preventing a steep depreciation in the rupee.
The RBI closely monitors the foreign exchange markets and intervenes only to maintain orderly market conditions by containing excessive volatility in the exchange rate, without reference to any pre-determined target level or band.