Six weeks in a row, foreign exchange reserves reached their lowest level in nearly two years.
Since the Ukraine crisis, India's foreign exchange reserves have declined by more than $80 billion, including more than $2 billion in the past week as the Reserve Bank of India sold dollars to help the rupee surpass 80 per dollar.
Foreign exchange reserves reached their lowest level in more than two years for the week ending September 9, when they declined by $2.234 billion to $550.871 billion from $553.105 billion in the previous week.
India's import coverage has fallen for six consecutive weeks and 23 out of 29 weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. This is a result of the RBI's continued withdrawal of reserves to fight a rise in the US currency caused by capital outflows from dollar-denominated assets.
The country's foreign exchange reserves have decreased by more than $90 billion since late October, when they reached a peak.
Despite a steady influx of foreign capital into the country's markets, a widening current account deficit has not been able to halt the decline in import coverage.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervened to stabilize the rupee following its steep decline from over $74 to a record low of over 80 per dollar this year.
In July, the central bank sold a net $19.05 billion in the spot currency market, according to the RBI's most recent monthly bulletin, published on Friday.
Activity on the Rupee market indicates that this trend maintained into August and the current month.
As the dollar continues to reach record highs against most major currencies not seen in more than two decades, the decline in the nation's foreign exchange reserves will likely remain the topic of conversation for some time.
The rupee had its worst week in five years on Friday as the dollar reached an all-time high due to increased bets on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates and warnings from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund about sluggish economic growth and rising inflation.
A currency broker who spoke with Reuters reported that market participants were cautious and viewed 80 rupees per dollar as a level to defend.
Following a global sell-off driven by looming recession risks of the broadest and most aggressive policy tightening in decades, Indian shares plunged into a market slaughter on Friday, erasing the week's gains and extending their losses for the third straight trading day.
This indicates that the RBI will continue to reduce reserves in order to protect the rupee against excessive volatility.
We expect that the strong dollar and widespread risk aversion will have a negative effect on the trading behavior of the rupee. Anuj Choudhary, a research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, told PTI that global markets fell after IMF spokesman Gerry Rice expressed concern about a further slowdown in the global economy and stated that some countries are expected to experience recession by 2023.
Despite a significant decrease in foreign exchange reserves this year, the nation has performed better than its rivals in emerging economies, whose import coverage has reached crisis levels.
India's foreign exchange assets (FCA), which represent the largest share of its foreign exchange reserves, declined by $2.519 billion to $489.598 billion in the week ending September, compared to a decrease of $6.527 billion to $492.117 billion in the same week during the reporting period.
The dollar-denominated foreign currency assets represent the appreciation or depreciation of non-U.S. currencies held in foreign exchange reserves, such as the euro, the pound, and the yen.
However, gold reserves climbed in value by $340,000,000 to reach $38,644,000,000.
During the reporting week, SDRs declined by $63 million to $17.719 billion, while the nation's reserve position with the IMF climbed by $8 million to $4.91 billion.
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