India building up gold reserves

Mumbai: Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said India has been building up gold reserves as part of its forex deployment.

“We are building up gold reserves that is a part of our reserve deployment,” Das told reporters at the customary post-policy review press conference here. He did not give any specifics on the quantum of gold buys, but pointed to the official data, which shows an increase in the value of gold reserves. As per official data, the value of gold in the forex reserves stood at $51.487 billion as on March 22, which is $6.287 billion higher than the value as at end-March 2023. As per a recent news report, RBI bought 8.7 tonne of gold in January alone which is the highest in two years.

The central bank’s gold holdings had touched 812.3 tonne at the end of January from 803.58 tonne in the preceding month, as per the World Gold Council. The price of gold has also seen a rally over the last few months. Earlier in the day, Das announced that the overall forex reserves have touched an all-time high of $645.6 billion as of March 29, a breakup of which will be made available on Friday evening with the release of the weekly statistical supplement (WSS).

Speaking to reporters, Das said RBI has consciously focused on building forex reserves over the last four-five years to act as a buffer against any future risks where there are dollar outflows from India. He also said the central bank’s approach on the forex front adds strength to the national balance sheet as well.