Mumbai: India’s foreign exchange reserves surged by $10.512 billion to $692.866 billion for the week ended July 31, extending their upward trend, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.
The latest surge follows a forex gain of $6.118 billion for the week ended July 24.
The value of gold reserves increased by $1.685 billion to $104.743 billion during the week ended July 31, the RBI said. For the same period, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by $8.750 billion to $564.680 billion.
Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units, such as the euro, pound, and yen, held in the foreign exchange reserves.
The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were also up by $48 million at $18.666 billion for the latest reported week, the Central Bank said.
The RBI’s weekly statistical supplement showed that the country’s foreign exchange reserves continued to strengthen after recovering from the decline witnessed earlier this year amid heightened global uncertainties.
India’s forex reserves had surged to an all-time high of $728.494 billion during the week ended February 27.
Meanwhile, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said this week there is no proposal to prematurely close the Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank), or FCNR (B), deposit incentive scheme.
The scheme has driven robust capital inflows into the country, enabled Indian banks to mobilise $36.7 billion through FCNR deposits (as of July 31, 2026), which has helped to steady the rupee compared to the US dollar, at a time when it had begun to slide amid rising oil prices in the global market.
Driven by these massive FCNR inflows, India’s headline foreign exchange reserves are expected to cross the $700 billion milestone in the coming weeks. The concessional zero-cost swap facility offered by the RBI remains fully operational and is scheduled to run through its original deadline of September 30, 2026.
(IANS)
