MUMBAI: India’s foreign exchange reserves rose for a third straight week and stood at a more than four-month high of $604.04 billion as of Dec. 1, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Friday.

The reserves rose by $6.1 billion in the reporting week, the highest gain since the week ended July 14. Reserves had risen by a total of $7.6 billion in the prior two weeks.

Changes in foreign currency assets are caused by the RBI’s intervention as well as the appreciation or depreciation of foreign assets held in the reserves.

Foreign exchange reserves include India’s reserve tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.

India’s forex reserves come off seven-week highs

India’s foreign exchange reserves are providing a cushion against external shocks, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said earlier in the day, while announcing the monetary policy decision.

“We remain confident of meeting our external financing requirements comfortably,” Das said.

For the week the forex reserves data pertains, the rupee traded in a narrow range of 83.2475 to 83.3950 against the dollar and logged marginal weekly gains.

The currency settled at 83.3850 on Friday, down 0.1% for the week.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)------------------------------------------------------                              Dec 01       Nov 24                               2023         2023------------------------------------------------------Foreign currency assets      533,610      528,531Gold                          47,329       46,338SDRs                          18,250       18,218Reserve Tranche Position       4,853        4,848-------------------------------------------------------Total                        604,042      597,935-------------------------------------------------------