Forex stocks jump by $3.66 billion to $641.59 billion: Reserve Bank data

Mumbai: After three consecutive weeks of drop, India’s forex reserves increased by $3.668 billion to $641.59 billion for the week ended May 3, the RBI said on Friday.

The overall kitty dropped $2.412 billion to $637.922 billion for the previous week ended April 26.

For the week ended April 5, the reserves had hit an all-time high of $648.562 billion, following multiple weeks of increases after breaching the previous high of September 2021 in March this year.

For the week ended May 3, the foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by $4.459 billion to $564.161 billion, the data released on Friday showed.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

Gold reserves decreased by $653 million to $54.88 billion during the week, the Reserve Bank of India said.

The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were up $2 million to $18.051 billion, the apex bank said.

India’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was down by $140 million to $4.499 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.