MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sold $6.49 billion, on a net basis, in the spot foreign exchange market in August, according to data released on Monday as part of the central bank’s monthly bulletin.
In July, it had bought a net of $6.93 billion in the spot market.
The RBI said it purchased $16.14 billion and sold $22.64 billion in the spot forex market in August.
While most Asian currencies rallied between 2% to 6% in August, the rupee weakened 0.2% to log its second consecutive monthly decline.
The central bank intervenes in the spot and forwards market to curb exchange rate volatility.
The RBI’s net outstanding forward dollar sales stood at $18.98 billion as of end-August, compared with a net sales of $9.1 billion at the end of the previous month, the data showed.
The currency settled at 84.0725 to the dollar on Monday.
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak and Nishit Navin; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
