The report released on Wednesday is the 37th in the series and is with reference to the position of foreign exchange reserves as of the end of September 2021. “During the half-yearly period under review, reserves increased from USD 576.98 billion at the end of March 2021 to USD 576.98 billion at the end of September 2021 at USD 635.36 billion, the report said.
Although the US dollar and the euro are both intervention currencies and foreign currency assets (FCAs) are maintained in major currencies, foreign exchange reserves are denominated and expressed in terms of US dollars. The movement in FCAs is mainly on account of foreign exchange buying and selling by the RBI, proceeds from deployment of foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts from the central government and changes due to revaluation of assets, the report said. said.
As of the end of September 2021, out of the total FCAs of USD 573.60 billion, USD 383.74 billion was invested in securities, USD 147.86 billion was deposited in other central banks and BIS and the remaining USD 42.00 billion in foreign commercial Deposits with banks included. Said it. At the end of June 2021, the foreign exchange reserve cover of imports declined from 17.4 months at the end of March 2021 to 15.8 months.
The ratio of short-term debt (original maturity), which stood at 17.5 per cent at the end of March 2021, declined to 16.8 per cent at the end of June 2021. The ratio of volatile capital inflows (including cumulative foreign portfolio inflows and outstanding) to reserves declined from 69 per cent at the end of March 2021 to 65.5 per cent at the end of June 2021, the report said. As of the end of September 2021, RBI had 743.84 metric tonnes of gold. “While 451.54 MT of gold is kept in safe custody overseas with the Bank of England and Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 292.30 MT is kept domestically,” the report said.
In value terms (USD), the share of gold in total foreign exchange reserves increased from about 5.87 per cent at the end of March 2021 to around 5.88 per cent at the end of September 2021. On a balance of payments basis (ie excluding valuation effects), foreign exchange reserves increased by US$ 31.9 billion during April-June 2021, as against US$ 19.8 billion during April-June 2020.
Foreign exchange reserves increased by USD 34.1 billion in nominal terms (including valuation effects) during April-June 2021, as against an increase of USD 27.9 billion in the same period of 2020-21. RBI’s net forward assets (receivables) in the domestic foreign exchange market stood at US$ 49.11 billion at the end of September 2021.
During the half year under review, there were two buyback transactions totaling US$ 191.29 million and one buyback transaction of US$ 46.68 million under the Financial Transaction Plan (FTP) of the IMF. IMF allocates special drawing rights (SDR12.57 billion (equivalent to approximately USD 17.86 billion at the latest exchange rate) to India as on August 23, 2021, the report said.