Foreign Exchange Reserves declined between March 31- Sep 30

The Foreign Exchange Reserves of India declined by US$ 74.65 billion to US$ 532.66 billion between March 31 and September 30.

"The Foreign Exchange Reserves of India stood at US$ 607.31 billion as on March 31, 2022. They declined by US$ 74.65 billion to US$ 532.66 billion as on September 30, 2022," said Minister of state, Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The reply said that the changes in the Foreign Exchange Reserves were mainly due to the revaluation of Foreign Currency Assets to reflect prevailing global market conditions and on account of market intervention operations of the Reserve Bank of India to smoothen exchange rate volatility.

The reply said that the exchange rate of the Indian Rupee (INR) is market-determined. "INR, which had earlier weakened by 8.7 per cent against the US dollar (till October 19, 2022) has since pared some of the losses and its depreciation stands at about 6.9 per cent in the current financial year (till November 30, 2022). In comparison to emerging market peer currencies, INR movement has been relatively stable," said the reply.

Further, it has performed better than most Asian peer currencies, including Chinese Renminbi (10.6 per cent), Indonesian Rupiah (8.7 per cent), Philippine Peso (8.5 per cent), South Korean Won (8.1 per cent), Taiwanese Dollar (7.3 per cent), etc., during the financial year. Moreover, INR has fared better than other emerging market currencies such as Turkish Lira (21.2 per cent), South African Rand (15.1 per cent) and Brazilian Real (8.7 per cent), said the Ministry's reply.