India's forex reserves rise for seventh consecutive week to record high

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's foreign exchange reserves rose for the seventh straight week to hit a record high of $648.56 as of April 5, data from the central bank showed on Friday.

The reserves rose by $2.98 billion in the reporting week, after having risen by a total of $29.45 billion in the previous six weeks.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervenes in the foreign exchange market to curb excess volatility in the rupee.

Changes in foreign currency assets are caused by the RBI's intervention as well as the appreciation or depreciation of foreign assets held in the reserves.

Foreign exchange reserves also include India's reserve tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.

In the week that the foreign exchange data pertains, the rupee gained 0.1% against the dollar after rebounding from a record low of 83.4550 hit earlier in the week.

The domestic currency settled at 83.4125 on Friday, down 0.1% week-on-week.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)

April 05 March 29

2024 2024

Foreign currency assets 571,166 570,618

Gold 54,558 52,160

SDRs 18,170 18,145

Reserve Tranche Position 4,669 4,660

Total 648,562 645,583

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Source text: (https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx)

((India Headline News Team; [phone]))

(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Sohini Goswami)