Forex reserves up by $135 bn in pandemic

Chennai: India increased its foreign exchange reserves by 28 per cent, or $135 billion, since the beginning of the pandemic.
As on July 16, 2021, foreign exchange reserves stood at $612.7 billion against $477.8 billion at the end of March 2020— up by $134.9 billion.

In FY21, forex reserves were up 20 per cent to $577 billion, from $477.8 billion in the previous fiscal—an addition of $100 billion. In FY20, the reserves had gone up by 15 per cent with an addition of $65 billion to $412.9 billion, the Ministry of Finance informed the Lok Sabha.

Foreign currency, which accounts for 93 per cent of the forex reserves, grew from $442 billion to $568 billion during the pandemic—between April 2020 and July 2021. In FY21, foreign currency reserves went up by 21 per cent to $536 billion.

Gold reserves went up from $30.6 billion at the end of FY20 to $37.3 billion as on July 16, 2021. In FY21, gold reserves were up by 3.9 billion. In the past three-and-half months, gold reserves valued at $3.4 billion were added.