India's Forex Reserves Rise For Second Week In Row

India's foreign exchange reserves rose to $630.61 billion for the week ended Jan. 31, as per the data released by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday.

The data was released on the day when RBI's Monetary Policy Committee decided to slash the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%. The rate cut, which was the first in nearly five years, is aimed at boosting economic growth.

As per the forex data released by central bank for the week ended Jan 31., the country's forex kitty rose by $1.05 billion during the period. This marked the second consecutive week of rise, as the reserves rose by $5.57 billion in the preceding week.

The consecutive weeks of rise in India's forex reserves comes after seven straight weeks of decline. The reserves had plummeted to an 11-month low of $623.98 billion last month.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee strengthened by 15 paise to close at 87.43 against the US dollar on Friday after the RBI slashed repo rates. Following the MPC announcement, the local currency rose by 25 paise to 87.33 against the greenback, but pared some of the gains at the time of close.

For the week ended Jan. 31, foreign currency assets—a major component of the reserves—fell to $537.68 billion, according to the RBI data. In comparison, it stood at $537.89 billion at the end of the preceding week.

In dollar terms, foreign currency assets include the effect of the appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in foreign exchange reserves.

Meanwhile, gold reserves increased to $70.89 billion from $69.65 billion in the week ended Jan. 31, the RBI data showed.