Foreign Exchange Reserves Reached $635 Billion In April-September 2021

The foreign exchange reserves rose by $58.38 billion during the April-September 2021 period to $635.36 billion, against $576.98 billion during March-end period of 2021, as per a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The central bank comes up with half-yearly reports on management of foreign exchange reserves and according to the report released on Wednesday regarding foreign exchange reserve position as on September-end 2021, they went up from $576.98 billion as on end-March 2021 to $635.36 billion as on end-September 2021, the report said.

Although both US dollar and Euro are intervention currencies and the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) are maintained in major currencies, the foreign exchange reserves are denominated in US dollar terms.

Movements in the FCA happen mainly due to purchase and sale of foreign exchange by the RBI, income arising out of the deployment of the foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts of the Central government and changes on account of revaluation of the assets, the report said.

As of end-September 2021, out of the total FCA of $573.60 billion, $383.74 billion was invested in securities, $147.86 billion was deposited with other central banks and the BIS and the balance $42.00 billion comprised deposits with commercial banks overseas, it said.