BIZ ~ COM
Mumbai, Mar 31:
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) forex reserves rose to a record high of $642.49 billion as of March 15.
RBI chief Shaktikanta Das said in January that the bank had embarked on strengthening and building higher reserves, which was essential to insulate emerging market economies from spillovers of global currency fluctuations.The pace of reserve-building has picked up in recent months with large dollar inflows being witnessed into equity and debt markets. With Indian debt getting included in the JPMorgan and Bloomberg emerging market debt indexes later this year, flows are expected to continue.
While foreign investors net bought a total of $28.7 billion worth of Indian equities and bonds over 2023, the rupee remained in a tight band between 83.42 and 80.88 against the U.S. dollar with its volatility hitting decadal lows on the back to persistent RBI interventions.In the same time period, the RBI was a net buyer of dollars having added $18.1 billion to its pile.”As the size of Indian economy increases to $5 trillion by FY27 and subsequently to $7 trillion by the end of this decade, FX reserves would have to keep pace with the size of the economy and markets experts feel.
