India's Forex Reserves Dropped To 578.45 Billion USD: RBI

RBI announced on Friday, April 7, 2023, that India's forex reserves has dropped by 329 million USD to 578.449 USD billion for the week ended on March 31, 2023, on account of decline in gold reserves as reported by Moneycontrol.

The forex kitty had risen handsomely in the previous two reporting weeks, and rose by 5.977 billion USD to 578.778 billion USD for the week ended March 24.

For the financial year 2023, the overall pool has fallen by 28.86 billion USD. Gradually the forex reserves have been declining as the RBI has been deploying the kitty to defend the rupee to deal with pressures caused majorly by global developments.

During the week ended on March 31, the foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, reduced by 36 million USD to 509.691 billion USD, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.

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. It is usually expressed in dollar terms.

Gold reserves decreased by 279 million USD to 45.20 billion USD, while its special drawing rights (SDRs) were down by 27 million USD to 18.392 billion USD, the apex bank said.

However, the declining situation of India's reserve with International Monetary Fund (IMF), is up by 14 million USD to 5.165 billion USD in March 31 week, as per the apex bank data showed.