The roaring gold prices came in handy for the Reserve Bank to shore up the foreign exchange reserves to a massive $14.595 billion, taking the overall kitty closer to $725 billion for the week to January 30, with the yellow metal crossing $5,600 an ounce in the international markets.
The country holds more than 810 tonnes in gold reserves, most of which is held in domestic vaults.
The $725 billion forex stockpile makes the country the fifth largest in terms of forex reserves, which can fund over 11 months of import cover.
The forex reserves surged by $14.361 billion to a new all-time high of $723.774 billion for the week to January 30, led by a dramatic increase in the gold reserves valuation, which soared to $137.683 billion during the week, while foreign currency assets slightly decreased, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.
In the previous reporting week, the forex kitty had increased by $8.053 billion to $709.413 billion, surging past the earlier all-time high of $704.89 billion recorded in the week to September 27, 2024. This was also buoyed by the rise in the value of the gold reserves that jumped by $5.635 billion to $123.088 billion.
For the reporting week, foreign currency assets, which are the major component of the reserves, decreased by $493 million to $562.392 billion, the data released by the central bank showed Friday.
Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units, such as the euro, pound and yen, held in the foreign exchange reserves.
While the value of gold reserves soared by $14.595 billion, those of the special drawing rights rose $216 million to $18.953 billion and the reserve position with the IMF also rose $44 million to $4.746 billion.
During the monetary policy announcement, governor Sanjay Malhotra had said at the current level of $723.8 billion, the foreign exchange stockpile can provide a merchandise import cover of more than 11 months.
"Overall, our external sector remains resilient. We are confident of meeting our external financing requirements comfortably," he said.
The following are the top five weeks in which the forex surged:
The biggest weekly rally was in the week to August 27, 2021 when the reserves added $16.663 billion to take the total to $633.558 billion, mainly due to an increase in the special drawing rights (SDRs), after the International Monetary Fund allocated 12.57 billion (around $17.86 billion) worth of SDRs to India on August 23, 2021.
The second biggest weekly addition was for the week to March 7, 2025 when the reserves added $15.3 billion, taking the total stockpile to $654 billion, bolstered by the Reserve Bank’s $10-billion forex swap operations conducted in February to ease liquidity. At the time, it was the highest weekly gain recorded since.
The third largest was recorded for the week to January 30, 2026 when the reserves hit the highest ever at $723.8 billion after the value of the 810 tonne gold reserves rose by a whopping $14.36 billion to $137.683 billion when gold crossed $5600 an ounce mark.
The fourth largest weekly addition was for the week to January 16, 2026 when the reserves jumped by $14.17 billion to take the total reserves to neat record of $701.36 billion, largely driven by a sharp increase in gold holdings, which rose by $4.62 billion due to surging global prices, and a $9.65 billion jump in foreign currency assets.
The fifth largest addition was in the week to September 27, 2024, when $12.5 billion was added to the kitty, taking the overall forex stockpile for the first time past the $700 billion mark to close at $704.89 billion.
The reserves had been falling as the rupee was under intense pressure since August when the US slapped 50% duty on Indian shipments. Also, foreigners had taken out $19 billion in 2025 and pulled out close to $4 billion in the first 30 days of 2026 leading to more pressure on the rupee that had lost 4.9% last year and more than 2.7% this year so far.
Since the September 27, 2024 peak of $704.9 billion, the reserves had crossed the $700-billion-mark thrice but did not cross the first record.