The Reserve Bank’s gold reserves elevated by 34.22 tonne year-on-year to attain 794.64 tonne at March-end 2023, confirmed central financial institution information on Monday.
The Reserve Bank held 760.42 metric tonnes of gold (together with gold deposits of 11.08 metric tonnes) at the March-end of 2022.
“As at end-March 2023, the Reserve Bank held 794.64 metric tonne of gold (including gold deposits of 56.32 metric tonne),” the central financial institution stated in its Half Yearly Report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves: October 2022 – March 2023.
While 437.22 tonne of gold is held abroad in protected custody with the Bank of England and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), 301.10 tonne of gold is held domestically.
In worth phrases (USD), the share of gold within the complete overseas trade reserves elevated from about 7.06% as of September-end 2022 to about 7.81% as of March-end 2023, the report stated.
During the half-year interval, reserves elevated from $532.66 billion as of September-end 2022 to $578.45 billion as of March-end 2023.
Forex reserves comprise overseas forex belongings, gold, particular drawing rights and reserve tranche place within the International Monetary Fund.
Although each the US greenback and Euro are intervention currencies and the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) are maintained in main currencies, the overseas trade reserves are denominated and expressed in US greenback phrases.
Movements within the FCA happen primarily on account of the acquisition and sale of overseas trade by the RBI, earnings arising out of the deployment of overseas trade reserves, exterior assist receipts of the central authorities and modifications on account of revaluation of the belongings.
As of March-end 2023, out of the overall FCA of $509.69 billion, $411.65 billion was invested in securities, $75.51 billion was deposited with different central banks and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), and the steadiness of $22.52 billion comprised deposits with business banks abroad.