The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: India’s foreign exchange reserves as of January 10 amounted to $625.871 billion or Rs 53.8 lakh crore, having declined on a weekly basis by $8.71 billion or Rs 63,231 crore, data from the RBI’s weekly statistical supplement said.
Its total value of $625.871 billion was India’s lowest in ten months, while the $8.71 billion weekly decline was the country’s sixth in a row and the highest in two months, Reuters reported.
Of the total forex reserves, foreign currency assets as calculated by the RBI stood at $536 billion on January 10, registering a $9.469 billion decline compared to the week prior.
Gold reserves increased by $792 million to reach $67.883 billion in value, while special drawing rights slipped by $33 million to $17.781 billion. India’s reserve position in the IMF stood at $4.195 billion, having shed $4 million by the week.
The decline in India’s forex reserves was precipitated primarily by the RBI’s intervention in the foreign exchange market to curb the rupee’s fall against the dollar, the Business Standard noted.
Earlier this week the rupee breached the 86-mark against the dollar, and on Friday (January 17) it closed at a provisional 86.62 against the dollar, as per PTI, which cited traders as saying that a strongly performing dollar as well as rising crude oil prices weighed against the rupee.
Expectations of policy shifts effected by incoming US President Donald Trump have also been behind the rupee’s slide, Reuters said. It added that the rupee’s fall from 85 to the dollar to 86 occurred over twice as fast as its fall from 84 to 85.
Dilip Parmar, a forex research analyst at HDFC Securities, told the news agency that the rupee could slip further to 86.9 next week – when Trump will be inaugurated into office – but that the RBI was not likely to allow a further fall.
The currency had reached an all-time low of 86.6475 earlier this week, per Reuters.