Sources of Variation in India’s Foreign Exchange Reserves during April-December 2025

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പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിച്ചത് മാർച്ച് 02, 2026

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Sources of Variation in India’s Foreign Exchange Reserves during April-December 2025

Today, the Reserve Bank of India released the balance of payments (BoP) data for the third quarter (Q3), i.e., October-December of 2025-26, on its website (www.rbi.org.in). On the basis of these data, the sources of variation in foreign exchange reserves during April-December 2025 are detailed below in Table 1.

Table 1: Sources of Variation in Foreign Exchange Reserves*
(US$ billion)
Items			April-December 2024	April-December 2025
I.		Current Account Balance	-36.7	-30.2
II.		Capital Account (net) (a to f)	22.9	-0.6
	a.	Foreign Investment (i+ii)	10.0	-1.3
		(i) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)	0.6	3.0
		(ii) Portfolio Investment	9.4	-4.3
	b.	Banking Capital	-0.8	1.0
		of which: NRI Deposits	13.3	11.1
	c.	Short-term Credit	11.6	15.3
	d.	External Assistance	4.2	1.0
	e.	External Commercial Borrowings	7.9	6.7
	f.	Other Items in Capital Account	-10.0	-23.4
III.		Valuation Change	3.1	50.2
IV.		Total (I+II+III) @ Increase in reserves (+) / Decrease in reserves (-)	-10.7	19.4
*: Based on the old format of BoP which may differ from the new format (BPM6) in the treatment of transfers under the current account and ADRs/ GDRs under portfolio investment. @: Difference, if any, is due to rounding off. Note: ‘Other Items in Capital Account’ apart from ‘Errors and Omissions’ includes SDR allocation, leads and lags in exports/imports, funds held abroad, advances received pending issue of shares under FDI, capital receipts not included elsewhere, and rupee denominated debt.

On a balance of payments basis (i.e., excluding valuation effects), foreign exchange reserves decreased by US$ 30.8 billion during April-December 2025 as compared to a depletion of US$ 13.8 billion during April-December 2024. Foreign exchange reserves in nominal terms (i.e., including valuation effects) increased by US$ 19.4 billion during April-December 2025 as against a depletion of US$ 10.7 billion in April-December 2024 (Table 2).

Table 2: Comparative Position of Variation in Reserves
(US$ billion)
Items		April-December 2024	April-December 2025
1.	Change in Foreign Exchange Reserves (i.e., Including Valuation Effects)	-10.7	19.4
2.	Valuation Effects [Gain (+)/Loss (-)]	3.1	50.2
3.	Change in Foreign Exchange Reserves on BoP basis (i.e., Excluding Valuation Effects)	-13.8	-30.8
Note: Increase in reserves (+)/Decrease in reserves (-). Difference, if any, is due to rounding off.

The valuation gain, primarily reflecting higher price of gold, depreciation of US dollar against major currencies and lower bond yields, increased to US$ 50.2 billion during April-December 2025 from US$ 3.1 billion during April-December 2024.

(Brij Raj)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2025-2026/2202