BENGALURU: India’s foreign exchange reserves dropped for a second straight week and stood at a two-month low of $616.10 billion as of Feb. 16, data from the central bank showed on Friday.

The reserves fell by $1.13 billion in the reporting week, after having fallen by $5.3 billion in the prior week.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervenes in the foreign exchange market to curb excess volatility in the rupee.

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 also include India’s reserve tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.

India’s forex reserves come off one-month high

In the week that the foreign exchange data pertains, the rupee largely remained unchanged against the dollar and traded in a thin range of 82.9725 and 83.1150.

The domestic currency settled at 82.9375 on Friday, up 0.1%for the week.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)----------------------------------------------------                              Feb 16       Feb 09                               2024         2024----------------------------------------------------Foreign currency assets      545,783      546,524Gold                          47,376       47,739SDRs                          18,107       18,135Reserve Tranche Position       4,831        4,832----------------------------------------------------Total                        616,097      617,230----------------------------------------------------