India's foreign exchange reserves fell for the first time in eight weeks, coming off record highs to decline to $643.16 billion as of Apr. 12, data from the central bank showed on Friday. The reserves fell by $5.4 billion in the reporting week, the steepest fall in over three months. They had risen by a total of $32.5 billion in the prior seven weeks. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervenes in the foreign exchange market to curb excess volatility in the rupee. The RBI has been selling dollars in the spot forex market over the last few sessions to prevent a large-scale depreciation in the rupee amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and worries over delayed rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, Reuters reported.

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. In the week that the foreign exchange data pertains, the rupee had fallen 0.1% against the dollar, and traded in a range of 83.15 to 83.4250.

The domestic currency settled at 83.47 on Friday, after hitting a record low of 83.5750 earlier in the session. The rupee ended marginally lower for this week. FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars) --------------------------------------------------------- April 12 April 05 2024 2024 --------------------------------------------------------- Foreign currency assets 564,653 571,166 Gold 55,798 54,558 SDRs 18,077 18,170 Reserve Tranche Position 4,634 4,669 ---------------------------------------------------------- Total 643,162 648,562 ---------------------------------------------------------- Source text: (https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx) (Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)