RBI's net short fwd position jumps to record high of $200.06 bln Aug-end
This story was originally published at 12:09 IST on 1 October 2026
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MUMBAI – The Reserve Bank of India's net outstanding sales of dollar-rupee forward contracts jumped to a record high of $200.06 billion at the end of August from $136.77 billion in July-end, data from the central bank showed Wednesday. This sharp rise was primarily on the back of flows absorbed under its concessional swap facilities introduced to encourage banks to mobilise foreign currency non-resident deposits and overseas borrowings by lenders and public-sector undertakings.
The RBI's concessional swap facility garnered $136.4 billion by Aug. 31, with banks mobilising around $127.2 billion in foreign currency non-resident (bank) deposits.
The RBI's swap facility for FCNR(B) deposits was open till Aug. 31, while that for the external commercial borrowings of public sector undertakings and offshore foreign currency borrowings of banks will remain open till Dec. 31.
Of the total forward book, short positions with maturity of over a year doubles to $176.57 billion at the end of August from $91.54 billion a month ago. The RBI's short positions for the tenure of more than three months to one-year were at $24.60 billion at August-end, down slightly from $24.75 billion from a month ago.
The outstanding short positions increased by $3.68 billion in the tenure of more than one-to-three months to $11 billion at the end of August. Short positions in near-term forwards with maturity of up to a month increased to $19.54 billion as of August-end, up $3.95 billion on month.
The net position of the RBI's forward book is the difference between its outstanding gross purchases and gross sales of forward contracts. The central bank's long forward positions increased 13-fold to $31.66 billion at the end of August, from $2.43 billion at Jul-end. End
IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT
Reported by Divya Moolayattil
Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj
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