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Informist, Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Reserve Bank of India's net outstanding sales of dollar-rupee forward contracts rose to an eleven-month high of $77.67 billion at the end of February, up $9.2 billion on month, data from the central bank showed late Tuesday. 

 

The continued rise in the RBI's outstanding forward dollar sales reflects the RBI's increased defence of the rupee by intervening through dollar sales in the offshore non-deliverable forwards and spot market. The rupee appreciated over 1% against the dollar in February. Market participants speculate that the RBI's net short forward positions have increased further and ballooned to over $100 billion in March.

 

Of the total forward book, short positions with maturity of up to one month stood at $10.95 billion at the end of February, up $825 million from a month ago. For the tenure of one-three months, the outstanding short positions were at $5.91 billion at Febuary-end, down $1.98 billion from a month ago. The outstanding short positions increased $1.57 billion in the tenure of three months to a year to $11.70 billion at the end of February. The net position of the RBI's forward book is the difference between its outstanding gross purchases and gross sales of forward contracts.

 

The RBI's short positions in long-term forwards with maturity of over one year increased the most and were at $49.11 billion as of February-end, up $8.83 billion on month. The central bank's long positions were nil at the end of February.

 

Details of the RBI's outstanding forward book as on Feb. 28 are as follows. All figures in million dollars:

 

February	Total	Up To 1 Month	1-3 Months	3 Months-1 Year	More Than 1 Year
Short positions	77,666	10,950	5,910	11,701	49,105
Net change from Jan-end	9,244	825	-1,975	1,566	8,828
Long positions	0	0	0	0	0
Net change from Jan-end	-650	-650	0	0	0
Net (long-short)	(-)77,666	(-)10,950	(-)5,910	(-)11,701	(-)49,105

 

End

 

US$1 = INR 94.83

 

Reported by Pratiksha

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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