India’s foreign exchange reserves have declined further for the second week in a row. India’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $2.59 billion in the week ended March 18. This is the second consecutive week when it has registered a sharp decline. Because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made a huge sale of dollars to stop the fall in the value of the rupee.
According to the RBI’s weekly review, the country’s foreign exchange reserves declined by $ 2.597 billion to $ 619.678 billion during the week ended March 18. The gold reserves as well as the value of foreign currency assets declined sharply. This was the second consecutive week of sharp fall in the country’s foreign exchange reserves. India’s forex reserves fell by $9.646 billion in the week ended March 11, the sharpest fall in nearly two years. The sharp fall in the country’s forex reserves coincides with the week during which the rupee hit an all-time low. The Indian rupee had hit a record low of 77.02 against the US dollar on March 7.
Foreign currency assets, which are the largest component of forex reserves, fell by $703 million to $553.656 billion during the week ended March 18. Forex assets had lost $11.108 billion in the previous week. Foreign currency assets also include data on non-US currency such as the euro, the UK pound sterling and the Japanese yen held in foreign exchange reserves. The value of gold reserves declined by $1.831 billion to $42.011 billion during the week under review. Due to a sharp jump in gold prices in the international markets, the value of gold reserves had increased by $ 1.522 billion in the week ended March 11.