India fourth largest country to hold foreign exchange reserves, enough to meet imports for 11 months: Sitharaman

02 Apr 2025 Evaluate

Dispelling concerns over the foreign exchange reserves and the current account deficit, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India is the fourth largest country to hold foreign exchange reserves of $658.8 billion, enough to meet the country's imports for 11 months. India is the fourth largest nation in terms of foreign exchange reserves after China, Japan and Switzerland.

She said ‘I want to assure you that total foreign exchange reserves as of March 25, 2025, is $658.8 billion. We are the fourth largest in terms of foreign exchange reserves that any country holds. Which means the amount that we hold in foreign exchange reserve is good enough to take care of 11 months of our imports. Even though there has been a little fall in the foreign exchange reserve, today the position is that we are the fourth largest in terms of foreign exchange reserves that we hold’. 

On the depreciation of the rupee, Sitharaman said various domestic and global factors influence the exchange rate of the rupee (INR) against the US Dollar (USD), such as the movement of the Dollar Index, trend in capital flows, level of interest rates, movement in crude prices, current account deficit etc. she said since the commencement of the last quarter of the calendar year 2024, the rupee, along with other major Asian currencies, depreciated against the US dollar amid global uncertainties.

She added ‘US Dollar Index rose 3.7 per cent during October 1, 2024, to March 26, 2025, with all Asian currencies depreciating against the USD. The rupee has depreciated 2.2 per cent against the US dollar during this period, least among major Asian currencies’. Further, foreign portfolio investment (FPI) outflows of around $19.9 billion from Indian markets during October 1, 2024, to March 26, 2025, was also one of the contributory factors for the depreciation of INR against the USD.


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