India’s Foreign Exchange (Forex) Reserves reached $596.098 billion on June 16, rising marginally by $2.350 billion in the week, as per the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In the previous week, ending June 9, the Forex kitty had dropped by $1.318 billion.

Other than gold reserves, all components saw a rising weekly, with Foreign currency assets (FCA) outperforming the overall kitty. Gold reserves dropped by $324 million to $45.049 billion.

FCAs are the largest reserve component and express the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves in dollar terms. FCAs rose by $2.578 billion to $527.651 billion in the week ending June 16.

Further, the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) increased by $62 million to $18.249 billion, and the country’s reserve position in the IMF grew by $34 million to $5.149 billion.

In its June 2023 bulletin, the RBI said that the country’s foreign exchange reserves growth during the calendar year 2023 is the second highest among major foreign exchange reserves-holding countries.

India’s Forex kitty reached an all-time high of $645 billion in October 2021 but has been declining since as the central bank deploys it to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global developments.