The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the latest data showing that India’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $4.6 billion to $596 billion on June 10. The decrease in total reserves was mainly due to the decline in foreign exchange currency exchange value. The data shows that monetary assets are $4.5 billion.

The central bank has been actively intervening in the foreign exchange market over the past few months. The RBI has been selling dollars to stem the rapid depreciation of the rupee.

Most emerging market currencies have been under pressure since the outbreak of the Ukraine war in late February as investors flocked to safe-haven assets. The rupee has lost nearly 5% against the dollar by 2022.

Foreign reserves have fallen by $36 billion since the end of February. Foreign exchange reserves hit an all-time high of $642 billion on September 3. This amount is equivalent to 14-15 months of imports in 2021-22.

The current foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to cover less than ten months of import demand expected in 2022-23.

“The RBI’s intervention in the market may be one of the reasons for the decline in foreign reserves,” said Bhaskar Panda, senior vice president of the financial advisory group at HDFC Bank.

Earlier this week, the rupee crossed the 78 mark against the US dollar for the first time and continued to trade at that level. The rupee traded in a narrow range on Friday, unchanged from its previous close of 78.08.