The Reserve Bank of India remained net buyer of the US currency in November as it purchased $864 million from the spot market. During the month, the central bank had purchased $2.570 billion from the spot market and sold $1.706 billion, according to the latest RBI data released today.
In October, the central bank had net bought $852 million of the greenback. It had sold $1.058 billion and purchased $1.910 billion from the market. In September, it had bought $1.259 billion of the US currency on a net basis.
The central bank’s intervention in the forex market is to curb volatility in the rupee and not to target a price band for the local unit. In November 2016, RBI was a net seller of the US currency, after it had bought $19.127 billion and sold $21.845 billion in the spot market.
In FY17, RBI had bought $12.351 billion of dollars on a net basis. It had bought $71.764 billion and sold $59.413 billion in the spot market in the previous fiscal. In fiscal 2016 too, the central bank was a net buyer of dollar to the tune of $10.209 billion.
In the forward dollar market, the outstanding net forward purchase at the end of November was $30.615 billion. The net forward purchase at the end of October was $31.374 billion, the RBI data showed.