India Sold $8 Billion of Treasuries as Central Bank Aided Rupee
Sales coincided with the RBI’s presence in the currency market.
(Bloomberg) -- India’s central bank sold $8 billion in U.S. Treasuries in April and May as part of its intervention strategy in the currency market to prop up the rupee.
Despite the RBI’s presence, the rupee lost 3.3 percent against the dollar in those months as foreign funds exited high-yielding emerging markets for safer havens amid rising U.S. interest rates. The local currency remains Asia’s worst performer this year.
Data from the Institute of International Finance showed India experienced a significant slowdown in capital flows. Its quarterly capital flows decreased to $6 billion in the second quarter of 2018 from $26.3 billion in the first quarter of 2018.
That slowdown and the RBI’s intervention in the currency market has seen foreign exchange reserves drop to $404 billion, down from a record $426 billion in mid-April.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anirban Nag in Mumbai at anag8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Karthikeyan Sundaram, Pradeep Kurup
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