India's forex reserves drop for 5th week

India’s foreign exchange reserves (INFXR=ECI) declined for a fifth straight week and stood at $584.74 billion as of Oct. 6, the lowest in more than five months, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Friday.

That was a decrease of $2.17 billion from the previous week. Reserves had fallen by a total of nearly $12 billion in the prior four weeks.

The central bank intervenes in the spot and forwards markets to prevent runaway moves in the rupee.

The RBI’s stranglehold on the rupee via its persistent forex market intervention has kept volatility in the Indian unit low over the last few sessions.

Apart from the central bank move, changes in foreign currency assets – expressed in dollar terms – also include the effects of appreciation or depreciation of other currencies held in the RBI’s reserves.

Foreign exchange reserves include India’s Reserve Tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.

For the week the forex reserves data pertains, the rupee had fallen 0.1% against the dollar and traded in the 83.1650-83.2650 range.

The rupee ended at 83.2625 on Friday, down for a third consecutive week.

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