MUMBAI: Despite the heavy selling of dollars to prop the bleeding rupee, which touched an all- time of 92.02 on Friday, the forex reserves surged by $8.053 billion to reach an all-time high of $709.413 billion for the week to January 23, primarily because of the surge in the valuation of the gold reserves of over 810 tonnes, the central bank said Friday.
Value of the gold reserves jumped by $ 5.635 billion to $123.088 billion during the week, the RBI said.
In the previous reporting week, the forex kitty had jumped by$ 14.167 billion to $ 701.36 billion boosted by the forex swap from $10 billion a week before.
Gold has been on fire since last year when it gained more than 81% and has rallied more than 40% in the first 29 days of 2026 crossing $5600\oz mark yesterday.
This is the highest level for the reserves which had touched $704.9 billion for the week ending September 26, 2024. Since then it had thrice crossed the $700 billion mark. The last week’s rally was the fourth largest on record and was also driven by surge in gold valuation.
During the early trade today, the rupee for the first time had breached the sensitive 92 mark to fall to an all time low of 92.02 but settled marginally higher at 91.97 from the previous close of 91.99.
The reserves had been falling as the rupee was under intense pressure since August when the US slapped 50% duty on Indian shipments and foreigners have been ripping of the equity market. They had taken out $19 billion in 2025 and had 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.
During the week to January 23, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, jumped by $ 2.367 billion to $ 562.885 billion, the data released by the central bank showed.
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.
Value of the gold reserves jumped by $ 5.635 billion to $123.088 billion during the week, the RBI said Friday.
The Special Drawing Rights were up by $ 33 million to $18.737 billion, the apex bank said.
The reserve position with the IMF was also up by $18 million to $4.703 billion in the reporting week, according to the apex bank's data.
Since the September 27, 2024 peak of $704.9 billion the reserves had crossed the $700-billion-mark twice but did not cross the first record.
From a weekly addition point of view, the biggest weekly addition was on 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 rally 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 16, 2026: when it added $14.17 billion 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 fourth largest addition was on September 27, 2024, when it $12.5 billion, taking the overall forex stockpile to its all-time peak of $704.89 billion. The fifth biggest accretion was in the week to November 14, 2025 when it jumped by $5.54 billion driven by gold holdings.
At over $709.4 billion makes the country the fifth largest in terms of forex reserves and this can last for close to 12 months of imports.