Indian business man counting newly launched indian five hundred rupees. Money counting background concept with copy space.
| Photo Credit:
Avijit Sadhu
Foreign exchange reserves (forex) jumped $6.992 billion to $692.721 billion in the week ending May 23, official data released by the Reserve Bank of India showed.
Estimates suggest that the country’s foreign exchange reserves sufficiently cover approximately 10-12 months of projected imports.With this weekly jump, the forex kitty is quite close to its all-time high of $704.89 billion, reached in September 2024.
The latest RBI data showed that India’s foreign currency assets (FCA), the largest component of foreign exchange reserves, stood at $586.167 billion. The gold reserves currently amount to $83.582 billion, according to RBI data.
Central banks worldwide are increasingly accumulating safe-haven gold in their foreign exchange reserves kitty, and India is no exception. The share of gold maintained by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its foreign exchange reserves has almost doubled since 2021.
In 2023, India added around $58 billion to its foreign exchange reserves, contrasting with a cumulative decline of $71 billion in 2022.
In 2024, the reserves rose by a little over $20 billion.
Foreign exchange reserves, or FX reserves, are assets held by a nation’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.
The RBI often intervenes by managing liquidity, including selling dollars, to prevent steep rupee depreciation. The RBI strategically buys dollars when the rupee is strong and sells when it weakens.
Published on June 1, 2025
