India’s foreign exchange reserves snapped a three-week gaining streak and stood at $646.67 billion as of May 24, coming off a record high, data from the central bank showed on Friday.

The reserves fell by $2 billion in that week, after rising by a total of $10.8 billion in the previous three weeks.

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

The RBI will “enhance intervention toolkit” to curb undue rupee volatility against the dollar in fiscal 2025, it said in its annual report on Thursday, without specifying what new tools it would use.

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 foreign exchange reserves hit record high at $648.70 billion

For the week to which the foreign exchange data pertains, the rupee traded in a range of 83.0250 to 83.3600 against the dollar, and logged its best week in more than five months.

The currency settled at 83.4625 on Friday, and logged its worst week in over two months.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars)----------------------------------------------------                              May 24       May 17                               2024         2024----------------------------------------------------Foreign currency assets      567,499      569,009Gold                          56,713       57,195SDRs                          18,135       18,168Reserve Tranche Position       4,326        4,327----------------------------------------------------Total                        646,673      648,700----------------------------------------------------