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Informist, Monday, Mar. 16, 2026

 

MUMBAI – The Reserve Bank of India net sold $51.71 billion in dollars in 2025, more than four times the previous calendar year, as part of its currency market intervention to reduce volatility, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said Monday. Despite the RBI intervention, the rupee was the second-worst performer against the dollar in the Apr. 1-Jan. 22 period, the minister told the Lok Sabha in a written reply Monday, citing a basket of nine other major and emerging market currencies.

The only currency that has performed worse than the rupee was Turkish Lira, which depreciated 12.3% in the given period, while the rupee depreciated 6.7% in the same period, the minister said. The central bank net sold $12.35 billion in the foreign exchange market in 2024. The government said the value of the rupee is market-determined, and it doesn't target any specific level or band for the domestic currency. The RBI makes similar comments in its public statements on the rupee, which fell to a record low of 92.4750 a dollar on Friday.

 

The rupee fell 5.0% against the greenback in 2025 to 89.87 a dollar, after losing 2.9% against the US currency in 2024 to 85.6150 a dollar as of Dec. 31, 2024. In 2023, the rupee depreciated by less than 0.6% to 83.2075 per dollar, during which the RBI's total intervention was a net purchase of $18.14 billion.

 

The primary reason for the rupee depreciation in the current financial year has been "the increase in trade deficit, amid relatively weak support from the capital account," the minister said. The rupee has depreciated by over 46% since the end of 2014, when it was at 63.04 a dollar, Chaudhary said.

 

The minister said the RBI had taken several measures since 2020 to reduce exchange-rate volatility and expand sources of foreign exchange funding. For the last year, he listed the overhaul of the external commercial borrowing framework in February, allowing rupee investments from balances in special rupee vostro accounts in August, and loosening norms for foreign portfolio investment in corporate bonds in May. The minister also pointed to easing restraints on Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) and Non-Resident (External) Rupee deposits, FPIs and the introduction of the special rupee vostro accounts.  End

 

US$1 = INR 92.42

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Suryash Kumar

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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