RBI becomes net buyer of dollars in September, bought $5.61 billion

After remaining net seller of the US dollar for two consecutive months, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) turned net purchaser of the greenback after it bought $5.614 billion in September, RBI data showed.

During the reporting month, the RBI purchased $6.514 billion and sold $900 million in the spot market, according to a recent RBI data.

In July 2019, the RBI had turned a net seller of the US dollar for first time in this fiscal, after it sold $93 million on a net basis.

In August, it sold $4.072 billion on net basis in the spot market.

In June 2019, RBI purchased $2.463 billion, as it bought $4.434 billion and sold $1.971 billion.

In May and April, the Central Bank had purchased $2.538 billion and $4.901 billion, respectively.

In September 2018, it had net sold $31 million in the spot market.

In FY19, the apex bank was a net seller of the dollar offloading $15.377 billion in the spot market. It had bought $40.804 billion and sold $56.181 billion in the year to March 2019.

In FY18, RBI had purchased $33.689 billion from the spot market, taking its total dollar purchase to $52.068 billion, and sold only $18.379 billion.

In the forward dollar market, the outstanding sales at the end of September were $7.483 billion, compared to a sale of $7.848 billion in August, the data showed.