The Reserve Bank continued to remain a net buyer of the US currency in July after it purchased $15.973 billion on a net basis from the spot market, according to its monthly bulletin.

In the month, the central bank bought $16.903 billion and sold $930 million in the spot market, according to the monthly bulletin released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

In the same month of 2019, the RBI was a net seller of US dollars after it bought $1.592 billion and sold $1.685 billion.

In June and May, 2020, the RBI had net bought $9.814 billion and $4.363 billion, respectively.

In April, it had sold $1.142 billion on a net basis.

In 2019-20, the central bank net purchased $45.097 billion. It had bought $72.205 billion while sold $27.108 billion in the spot market.

In the forward dollar market, the outstanding net sales at the end of July were at $379 million, compared to a net purchase of $2.459 billion in June, data showed.

Lifetime high

The country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $582 million to reach a lifetime high of $542.013 billion in the week ended September 4, RBI data showed on Friday.

In the previous week ended August 28, the reserves had surged by $3.883 billion to $541.431 billion.

In the reporting week, the foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, increased by $269 million to $498.362 billion, the data showed.

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