India's forex reserves decreased by $1.145 billion to $640.874 billion for the week ended on November 5 on a fall in currency and gold assets, the Reserve Bank said on Friday. The overall reserves had increased by $1.919 billion to $642.019 billion for the previous reporting week. Foreign currency assets, a major part of the overall reserves, decreased by $881 million to $577.581 billion for the reporting week, the RBI said in the weekly data.
India's forex reserves decreased by $587 million to $635.08 billion for the week ended December 24, the RBI said on Friday. In the previous week ended December 17, the overall reserves had decreased by $160 million to $635.67 billion. The kitty had touched a lifetime high of $642.45 billion in the week ended September 3, 2021.
Video footage from inside the building showed hundreds of protesters packing into rooms and corridors, while hundreds also milled around the grounds outside.
The country's foreign exchange reserves rose by $2.518 billion to touch a lifetime high of $575.29 billion in the week ended November 20, RBI data showed on Friday. In the previous week ended November 13, the reserves had surged by $4.277 billion to $572.771 billion. In the reporting week, the increase in the forex kitty was on account of a rise in foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves.
The rupee plunged 20 paise to close at an all-time low of 78.13 against the US dollar on Monday, as a lacklustre trend in domestic equities and stronger greenback overseas weighed on investor sentiments. Forex traders said weak Asian currencies and persistent foreign capital outflows were the other major factors that dragged the local unit down. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 78.20 and witnessed an intra-day high of 78.02 and a low of 78.29 against the US dollar.
India needs foreign exchange buffer reserves to insulate itself from exchange rate volatility as we have "no friends" for swap lines and Japan was the only country that helped during the taper tantrum in 2013, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday. Participating in a virtual event organised by economic think tank NCAER, Rajan said during the taper tantrum in 2013, India asked for swap lines, and only country who helped was Japan. "We need this (foreign exchange) reserve buffer to insulate ourselves because we have no friends.
The rupee depreciated 39 paise to an all-time low of 82.69 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday as elevated crude oil prices and risk-averse sentiment among investors weighed on the local unit. Moreover, a negative trend in domestic equities and firm American currency sapped investor appetite, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 82.68 against the greenback, then slipped further to 82.69, registering a fall of 39 paise over its previous close.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted searches at 44 places across the country in a money laundering investigation against Chinese smartphone manufacturing company Vivo and related firms, officials said. The searches are being carried out under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at locations in several states including in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Maharashtra and others. The agency is conducting searches at 44 places related to Vivo and associated companies, they said.
India's forex exchange reserves increased by $289 million to $640.401 billion for the week ended November 19, the Reserve Bank said on Friday. The overall reserves had declined by $763 million to $640.11 billion in the previous reporting week. They had touched a life time high of $642.45 billion in the week ended September 3, 2021.
The rupee depreciated further by 13 paise to hit a new life-time closing low of 82.30 against the US dollar on Friday as a firm American currency and risk-averse sentiment among investors weighed on the local unit. Moreover, a negative trend in domestic equities and elevated crude oil prices sapped investor appetite, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 82.19, then fell further to 82.43. It finally settled at an all-time low of 82.30 against the American currency, registering a decline of 13 paise over its previous close.
The country's foreign exchange reserves jumped by a massive $7.779 billion to touch a lifetime high of $568.494 billion in the week ended November 6, RBI data showed on Friday. In the previous week ended October 30, the reserves had increased by $183 million to $560.715 billion. In the reporting week, the jump in reserves was mainly on account of an increase in foreign current assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves.
The quizzing of the 48-year-old daughter-in-law of superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan comes weeks after her husband Abhishek Bachchan was questioned by the agency in another case emerging from the same set of papers linked to the offshore leaks case, they said.
The price of bitcoin, the bestselling cryptocurrency, has shrunk nearly three times this year to mark the fate of such digital assets. Crashing prices, regulatory uncertainty and taxes have put Indian crypto exchanges in troubled waters. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budget for FY23 announced a 30 per cent tax on any income from the transfer of virtual digital assets.
Ppolitical experts in Colombo said the ministers came under intense pressure from the public over the government's alleged "mishandling" of the economic crisis, triggered by the shortage in the foreign exchange reserve.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed journalist Rana Ayyub's plea challenging summons by the Ghaziabad special court in a money laundering case, leaving it open for her to raise the issues before the trial court.
The country's foreign exchange reserves touched a life time high of USD 555.12 billion after it surged by USD 3.615 billion in the week ended October 16, according to RBI data.
The central government is on track to meet its fiscal deficit target of 6.4 per cent of the GDP for 2022-23 on the back of strong growth in revenue collections, the World Bank said in its India Development Update on Tuesday. High nominal GDP growth in the first quarter supported strong growth in revenue collection, especially Goods and Services Tax (GST), despite tax cuts on fuel. Notwithstanding an increase in spending due to expanded fertilizer subsidies and food subsidies for vulnerable households in response to the commodity price shock, the government is on track to meet its FY22/23 fiscal deficit target of 6.4 per cent of GDP and the general government deficit is projected to decline to 9.6 per cent from 10.3 per cent in FY21/22 and 13.3 per cent in FY20/21.
Gold reserves increased $1.54 billion to $32.68 billion in the reporting week.
Gold reserves rose by $321 million in the reporting week to $37.521 billion.
The Centre is pushing for bilateral trade with Cuba and its settlement in rupee as a part of its strategy to internationalise the domestic currency. A delegation from Cuba, including officials from its central bank, met Indian government officials and banks last month to discuss bilateral trade and settlement using the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) payment mechanism in rupee, said people aware of the matter. Since the Cuban nation has opened up its economy and is looking to implement reforms to attract investments from India, Cuban banks have evinced interest in opening special rupee vostro accounts (SRVAs) with Indian banks.
Walmart-owned Flipkart on Thursday said the company is in compliance with Indian laws, including FDI regulations, and will cooperate with the Enforcement Directorate on the notice sent to the e-commerce major. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a show cause notice of Rs 10,600 crore to Flipkart and its promoters for alleged violation of the foreign exchange law, official sources said on Thursday. When contacted, Flipkart said it is in compliance with Indian laws and regulations, including FDI regulations.
Gold reserve also declined by $340 million to $30.55 billion.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the media needs to remain vigilant and flag shortcomings of the government with a view to improve the effectiveness of governance.
The reserves rose to $501.70 billion helped by a whopping rise in foreign currency assets, the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India.
The rupee extended its losses and slumped 60 paise to close at a record low of 77.50 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, pressured by the strength of the American currency overseas and unabated foreign fund outflows. Forex traders said risk appetite has weakened amid mounting concerns about inflation that may trigger more aggressive rate hikes by global central banks. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened lower at 77.17 against the greenback, and finally settled for the day at 77.50, down 60 paise over its previous close.
Gold reserves were down by $580 million in the reporting week to $37.440 billion.
'The pitch for India is flat, the ball for India is old, the sun for India is out, and the bowlers are not bowling too well.' 'I think only we can get ourselves out.'
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun the process of freezing at least five bank accounts of Arpita Mukherjee, the associate of arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, where they have found at least Rs 2 crore, a senior official said on Saturday.
A video is being shared on social media showing the protesters counting the currency notes that were unearthed. The recovered money was said to be handed over to the security units, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.
Thousands of irate anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka on Saturday stormed into embattled President Rajapaksa's official residence in central Colombo's high-security Fort area after breaking the barricades, as they demanded his resignation over the island nation's worst economic crisis in recent memory.
The rupee slipped by 4 paise to close at 77.59 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, weighed down by a negative trend in domestic equities and unabated foreign fund outflows. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened lower at 77.56 against the greenback, and finally settled at 77.59, down 4 paise over its previous close. During the trading session, the rupee touched an intra-day low of 77.67 and a high of 77.51.
A group of protesters on Saturday entered the private residence of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and set it on fire, hours after he offered to resign to make way for an all-party government amid unprecedented protests in the country for the resignation of the government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said that India has once again established itself as the world's fastest-growing economy. "Due to consistent endeavours, India has again emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. "GST collection has consistently remained above Rs 1 lakh crore during the last several months," President Kocind said while addressing both Houses of the Parliament at Central Hall ahead of the Budget Session. In the first seven months of the current financial year, the inflow of 48 billion dollars, the President said is a "testimony to the belief the global investor community has in India's growth story."
Gold reserves were down by $1.441 billion in the reporting week to $35.999 billion.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a dollar-rupee two-year sell-buy swap auction for $5 billion on March 8, which will suck out rupee liquidity from the system. The swap will be in the nature of a simple sell/buy foreign exchange from the RBI side, in which a bank will buy US dollars from the central bank and simultaneously agree to sell the same amount of US dollars at the end of the swap period. "With a view to elongating the maturity profile of its forward book and smoothen the receivables relating to forward assets, it has been decided to undertake sell/buy swap auction of $5 billion on March 8, 2022," the RBI said in a statement. The auction cut-off will be based on the premium amount in paisa terms up to two decimal points.
Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, suggests T N Ninan.
A sharp rally in domestic stocks from June lows has once again rendered Indian markets expensive to their emerging-market (EM) peers. The 12-month forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple for the Nifty50 Index is around 20.6x - 82 per cent higher than 11.3 per cent for the MSCI EM Index. India's valuation premium has hit a five-month high. This is on the back of sharp outperformance to EM and global peers from June lows and also due to earnings downgrades, following the April-June quarter of 2022-23 earnings.
The rupee plunged 90 paise to close at an all-time low of 80.86 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve's interest rate hike and its hawkish stance weighed on investor sentiments. Forex traders said the US Fed's rate hike and escalation of geopolitical risk in Ukraine sapped risk appetite. Moreover, the strength of the American currency in the overseas market, a muted trend in domestic equities, risk-off mood and firm crude oil prices weighed on the rupee.
Surplus liquidity in the banking system as measured by absorption of excess funds by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) fell sharply at the end of the last week due to outflows on account of advance tax payments. According to the RBI data, the net liquidity absorbed by the central bank on September 16 was at Rs 3,243.57 crore, much lower than the average of Rs 56,809.92 crore in the preceding four days of the week. The average absorption of funds by the RBI so far in September is at Rs 1.13 trillion, against the average of Rs 1.2 trillion in the previous month, the data showed.
The rupee on Friday rebounded from the near-80 levels to close higher by 17 paise at 79.82 against the US currency following a recovery in the domestic stocks and weakness in the greenback in overseas markets. The US dollar retreated from the two-decade high levels against a basket of six currencies which supported the rupee sentiment. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 79.95 and witnessed an intra-day high of 79.82 and a low of 79.96 against the US dollar in the day trade. ,