NEW DELHI, July 19 (Xinhua) -- An Indian government official on Monday said the country has emerged as the fifth largest forex reserves holder in the world with 608.99 billion U.S. dollars as of June 25, 2021.
"With India's forex reserves at 608.99 billion U.S. dollars as on June 25, 2021 stood, India has emerged as the fifth-largest foreign exchange reserves holder in the world after China, Japan, Switzerland and Russia," Minister of State Pankaj Chaudhary said at the lower house of the Indian parliament.
India's foreign exchange reserves position is comfortable in terms of import cover of more than 18 months and provides cushion against unforeseen external shocks, he said.
"Government and RBI (the Reserve Bank of India) are closely monitoring the emerging external position calibrating policies or regulations to support robust macroeconomic growth," the minister said.
He said the variation in India's forex reserves was primarily the outcome of RBI's intervention in the foreign exchange market to smoothen exchange rate volatility, valuation changes due to movement of the U.S. dollar against other international currencies in the reserve basket, movement in gold prices, interest earnings from deployment of foreign currency assets and inflow of aid receipts.
"Current account deficit, accompanied by increasing foreign exchange reserves, reflects a surplus on the balance of payments i.e., the magnitude of the net capital inflows exceeds the volume of the current account deficit," he said.
"In 2020-21, India's balance of payments recorded surplus in both current account and capital account which contributed to the increase in foreign exchange reserves during the year." Enditem
