India FX reserves fall for 8th week to $717.06bn in week to 30 October as rupee firms

Reserves have fallen for eight weeks in a row

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) holds foreign exchange reserves that it can use to support the rupee. Total reserves fell by another $2.69 billion to $717.06 billion in the week to 30 October. They are now about $68.6 billion below their 4 September peak of $785.71 billion. Most of the latest fall came from foreign currency assets, which dropped $2.09 billion to $591.12 billion. Gold reserves slipped to $102.59 billion from $103.15 billion.

The rupee strengthened against the dollar

The RBI's reference rate was 94.14 rupees per US dollar on 6 November, compared with 95.25 on 30 October. A lower number means a stronger rupee.

Short-term funding costs rose as cash got tighter

• The maximum rate on certificates of deposit (CDs) jumped to 8.04% in the second half of October, from 6.92%. CDs are short-term debt that banks issue.
• The minimum rate on commercial paper (CP) rose to 6.23% from 5.75%. CP is short-term debt that companies issue.
• Banks borrowed ₹481.65 billion through the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF), the RBI's emergency overnight lending window, on 30 October. They borrowed ₹234 billion on 1 November.
• The RBI ran a ₹1,500 billion variable rate repo, an auction of short-term loans to banks, on 26 October.
• Banks still parked a lot of cash. The Standing Deposit Facility, where banks deposit surplus cash with the RBI, held ₹2,058.69 billion on 1 November.
• Commercial paper outstanding was flat at ₹6,613 billion. Certificates of deposit outstanding rose to ₹5,942 billion.

October payment-network totals now cover the full month

The National Financial Switch (NFS) payment network's total for October now stands at 261.85 million transactions worth ₹1,19,526 crore. The earlier figures were 244.66 million transactions and ₹1,11,417 crore. Those earlier figures appear to have covered only part of the month.