This is the sharpest weekly fall in forex reserves in the last 6 months and on an outstanding basis, the forex reserves were are at the lowest level in the last 2 months.
India’s foreign exchange reserves dropped by $7.27 billion on a weekly basis to $594.89 billion as of August 18, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) weekly statistical supplement showed on Friday.
This is the sharpest weekly fall in forex reserves in the last 6 months and on an outstanding basis, the forex reserves were are at the lowest level in the last 2 months. During the week ended August 11, the forex reserves had rose by $708 million to $602.16 billion.
RBI’s forex reserves had reached an all time high of $645 billion in October 2021, according to news agency PTI. The reserves took a hit as the regulator deployed forex kitty to defend rupee amid global market volatility. During the week ended August 18, the rupee fell by 0.3% to 83.11 level and on Friday rupee fell 0.10% to 82.65 level.
Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
According to the data, foreign currency assets—which constitute the largest part of forex reserves–fell $6.6 billion to $527.78 billion. Gold reserves, meanwhile, fell $515 million on-week to $43.8 billion.
Special drawing rights fell by $119 million to $18.20 billion, while India’s reserve position in the international monetary fund (IMF) fell $25 million to nearly $5.07 billion.
While forex reserves registered the steepest weekly fall in last six-months, banks’ overall credit grew 20% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 148.76 trillion as of August 11. Excluding the merger of HDFC Bank twins, overall bank credit grew 15% YoY to Rs 142.72 trillion.
Overall deposits, meanwhile, grew 13.5% YoY to Rs 192.36 trillion as of August 11. Excluding the HDFC-HDFC Bank merger, overall deposits grew 13% YoY to Rs 190.88 trillion.
Source:financialexpress.com