India's foreign exchange reserves slip from near 22-month highs

Mumbai: India's foreign exchange reserves, which had seen a seven-week winning streak, stood at $617.30 billion as of Jan. 5, easing from near 22-month highs, data from RBI showed on Friday.

The reserves witnessed the steepest decline in nearly five months, falling $5.9 billion for the reported week, following a cumulative increase of $32.9 billion in the preceding seven weeks.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervenes in the foreign exchange market to curb excess volatility in the rupee. Changes in foreign currency assets include the impact of the RBI's intervention as well as the appreciation or depreciation of foreign assets held in the reserves.

Foreign exchange reserves also include India's reserve tranche position in the International Monetary Fund. For the reported week, the rupee traded in a narrow range of 83.12-83.3475 against the dollar, and logged marginal weekly gains.

The domestic currency settled at 82.9225 on Friday, after climbing to a near four-month high in the session, and gained 0.3 per cent for this week.