India’s forex reserves drop by $9.32 billion, remain near record high

India's foreign exchange reserves (forex) recorded a massive drop, according to official data released by the Reserve Bank of India. They fell by USD 9.32 billion to USD 688.871 billion in the week ended August 1, it added. In the latest monetary policy meeting, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said that the foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to meet 11 months of the country's imports.

Despite this weekly decline, the forex reserves remain close to their all-time high of USD 704.89 billion touched in September 2024.

Latest data from the Reserve Bank of India showed that India's foreign currency assets (FCA), the largest component of the forex reserves, stood at USD 581.607 billion.

According to RBI data, the gold reserves currently stand at USD 83.998 billion, down by USD 1.706 billion.

Central banks around the world were accumulating safe-haven gold in their forex reserves, and India was no exception. The share of gold held by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its forex reserves has almost doubled since 2021.

In 2023, India added about USD 58 billion to its foreign exchange reserves, while in 2022 there were a cumulative decline of USD 71 billion.

In 2024, the foreign exchange reserves rose by a little over USD 20 billion. According to the data, the foreign exchange reserves have increased by a total of about USD 49 billion so far in 2025.

Foreign exchange reserves, or FX reserves, are assets held by a country's central bank or monetary authority, primarily in reserve currencies such as the US dollar, with smaller portions in the euro, Japanese yen and pound sterling.

To prevent a sharp fall in the rupee, the RBI often intervenes through liquidity management, including selling dollars. The RBI strategically buys dollars when the rupee is strong and sells it when it is weak.

With the inputs of ANI