India’s forex reserves have fallen $64.7 billion in six weeks

India’s foreign exchange reserves reached a record $785.71 billion in the week ended 4 September 2026. Six weekly falls later, they stood at $721.02 billion on 16 October, down $64.7 billion, or 8.2%.

The largest drops came in the second half of September, when reserves fell $14.88 billion in the week to 18 September and $18.3 billion in the week to 25 September. Brent crude went above $100 again in early September and stayed there, and foreign investors sold Indian shares heavily through late September and early October.

Not all of it is the RBI selling dollars

Reserves fall when the RBI sells dollars to steady the rupee, but also when the value of what it holds changes. Reserves include euros, yen and gold, so a stronger dollar or a fall in gold prices shrinks them without any intervention. In the week to 25 September, for example, gold holdings fell $2.5 billion and foreign currency assets $15.5 billion.

Foreign currency assets, the largest part, were $591.85 billion on 16 October, against $615.4 billion three weeks earlier. Gold holdings were $105.8 billion, up $706 million in the latest week.

The buffer is still large

The pace has slowed for three weeks running, and the level is still high. $721 billion covers about nine and a half months of imports at September’s pace of $74.61 billion of merchandise imports. The rupee was at 94.94 to the dollar on 23 October.

India entered this oil shock with record reserves. Six weeks have used about a twelfth of them.

Sources: RBI Weekly Statistical Supplement data as reported by PTI (Devdiscourse, Times of Oman, Millennium Post) and All India Radio News for the weeks ended 11 September to 16 October 2026; merchandise imports from the Ministry of Commerce; FBIL reference rate.