The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sharply increased its allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to India, in line with the country's existing quota in the fund. The RBI said IMF has made an allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) equivalent to around $17.86 billion to India on August 23. This increase in SDR holdings will be reflected in the Foreign Exchange Reserves (FER) data that shall be published for the week ended August 27, 2021.
SDR holding is one of the components of the foreign exchange reserves of a country. The IMF makes the general SDR allocation to its members in proportion to their existing quotas in the Fund. The Board of Governors of the IMF had approved a general allocation of about SDR 456 billion on August 2, 2021, effective from August 23, 2021, of which the share of India is SDR 12.57 billion.
RBI’s data had showed the country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $2.47 billion to reach $616.895 billion in the week ended August 20. In the previous week ended August 13, 2021, the reserves had declined by $2.099 billion to $619.365 billion. The forex kitty had touched a lifetime high of $621.464 billion in the week ended August 6, 2021.
