India’s foreign exchange reserves surged to $716.91 billion during the week ending August 14, 2026, marking a six-month high after the Reserve Bank of India rolled out a series of measures designed to vacuum up dollar inflows. The $9.9 billion weekly jump is impressive on its own, but zoom out and the picture gets more interesting: reserves have climbed by nearly $50 billion over the past seven weeks alone.
The RBI essentially opened the floodgates in late June with concessional swap facilities and sweetened terms for Foreign Currency Non-Resident deposits. By August 13, inflows under these measures totaled roughly $57 billion, with more than $50 billion coming from FCNR(B) deposits, a mechanism that lets overseas Indians park foreign currency in Indian banks at favorable rates.
Building back the buffer
India’s reserves had peaked at $728.49 billion back on February 27, 2026, before geopolitical turbulence and RBI dollar sales to defend the rupee chipped away at the stockpile. The current $716.91 billion figure sits about $11.6 billion below that all-time record.
Foreign currency assets, the largest component of reserves, rose by $7.225 billion to $581.851 billion. Gold reserves added $2.679 billion, climbing to $111.417 billion. India currently ranks as the fifth-largest holder of forex reserves globally.
