Forex: India's foreign exchange reserves continue to decline. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday informed that the country's foreign exchange reserves fell by $8.48 billion to $644.39 billion in the week ending December 20. In the previous week, the country's foreign exchange reserves fell by $1.99 billion to a six-month low of $652.87 billion.

Why is the foreign exchange reserve declining?

The foreign exchange reserves have been declining for the last few weeks. The reason for this decline is believed to be the RBI's intervention in the foreign exchange market to reduce the fluctuations in the rupee as well as valuation.

Foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high in September

The foreign exchange reserves rose to an all-time high of US$ 704.88 billion at the end of September. According to data released on Friday, the major part of the foreign exchange reserves or foreign currency assets fell by $ 6.01 billion to $ 556.56 billion in the week ended December 20. Foreign currency assets expressed in dollar terms include the effect of fluctuations in non-US currencies such as euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

The value of gold reserves also declined

During the week under review, the value of gold reserves fell by $2.33 billion to $65.73 billion. Special Drawing Rights (SDR) fell by $112 million to $17.88 billion. According to Reserve Bank data, during this period under review, India's reserves with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also fell by $23 million to $4.22 billion.

There was also a discussion in Parliament on foreign exchange reserves

The country's foreign exchange reserves were also discussed during the winter session of Parliament, in which the Finance Ministry had shared the then forex data and it was stated that the all-time high level of US$ 700 billion (704.88) billion was seen in the forex reserves in September.