BANKING AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -with nearly 7.34% of forex reserves in gold. The FCAs also include investments in US Treasury bonds, bonds of other selected governments and deposits with foreign central and commercial banks. As of September 2021, India holds fourth largest foreign-exchange reserves in the world following Switzerland.

Detailed explanation-2: -India’s forex reserves stood at $561.583 billion as on January 13, 2023. The Foreign Currency Assets stood at $503.65 billion. FCA is a major component of the overall reserves.

Detailed explanation-3: -From $632.74 billion as of January 7, 2022, the reserves declined to $562.851 billion as of December 30, 2022, even as the Reserve Bank of India used its forex arsenal to stabilise the rupee and cushion the capital outflows.

Detailed explanation-4: -As of November 2022, foreign exchange reserves in China was 3, 180, 689 million US dollars that accounts for 37.92% of the world’s foreign exchange reserves. The top 5 countries (others are Japan, Russian Federation, India, and Republic of Korea) account for 70.27% of it.

Detailed explanation-5: -According to RBI’s latest data, India’s foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves, rose by USD 9.078 billion to USD 505.519 billion. Gold reserves rose by USD 1.106 to USD 42.890 billion. Notably, at the start of last year-2022, the overall forex reserves were at about USD 633 billion.