India’s foreign exchange reserves rose to USD 665.396 billion during the week ended March 28, the RBI said on Friday. The forex reserve increased for the fourth consecutive week, marking the highest level in nearly five months.
In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves rose by USD 4.529 billion to USD 658.8 billion, the RBI said.
For the week ended March 28, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by USD 6.158 billion to USD 565.014 billion, the data showed.
The forex reserves had increased to an all-time high of USD 704.885 billion in end-September 2024.
As per the RBI data, the gold reserves increased by USD 519 million to USD 77.793 billion during the week. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down by USD 65 million to USD 18.176 billion.
India’s reserve position with the IMF was also down by USD 16 million at USD 4.413 billion in the reporting week, the apex bank data showed.
Notably, on Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Rajya Sabha that India is the fourth-largest country to hold foreign exchange reserves, which is enough to meet the country’s imports for 11 months.
“Even though there has been a slight decline in the foreign exchange reserves, today we are the fourth-largest holder,” the Finance Minister said.
India is the fourth-largest nation in terms of foreign exchange reserves after China, Japan, and Switzerland.