MUMBAI: After falling over $40 billion in March, the forex reserves have jumped 3.8 billion in the week ending April 10 to reclaim the $700-billion-mark again, thanks to the gold price increase along with an appreciation in the special drawing rights as well as the reserves with the International Monetary Fund.
The Reserve Bank said the forex reserves rose by $3.825 billon to touch $700.946 billion for the week to April 10.
The apex bank said this was primarily driven by a rise in the value of gold reserves of over 810 tonne, and the special drawing rights as well as the reserves with the International Monetary Fund.
In the previous reporting week ending April 3, the overall reserves had jumped $9.063 billion to $697.121 billion. The key external defence which the forex reserves are, had hit an all-time high of $728.494 billion during the week to February 27,2026, before the onset of the Middle East conflict which led to four successive weeks of drops as the rupee came under pressure and the RBI had to intervene in the forex market through dollar sales.
Its defence through dollar slaes and other market interventions have helped the rupee remain range-bound so far in April. On Friday, April 17, the rupee rose 28 paise to close at 92.86 against the greenback which had plunged to 95.24 in March 30, down 9.9% in FY26.
For the week ended April 10, foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the reserves, increased by $3.127 billion to $555.983 billion, the central bank's data showed. Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US dollar units such as the euro, pound, and yen, held in the foreign exchange reserves.
Value of gold reserves increased by $601 million to $121.343 billion during the week, the RBI said, adding the special drawing rights with the World Bank rose $56 million to $18.763 billion, while the country’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund rose $41 million to $4.857 billion.