RBI buys $864 mn of US currency in November

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank remained net buyer of the US currency in November as it purchased USD 864 million from the spot market.

In the month, the central bank purchased USD 2.570 billion from the spot market and sold USD 1.706 billion, according to the latest RBI data released today.

In October, the central bank net bought USD 852 million of the greenback, and sold USD 1.058 billion and purchased USD 1.910 billion from the market.

In September, it had bought USD 1.259 billion of the US currency on net basis.

The central bank's intervention in the forex market is to curb volatility in the rupee and not to target a price band for the local unit.

In November 2016, RBI was a net seller of the US currency, after it bought USD 19.127 billion and sold USD 21.845 billion in the spot market.

In FY17, RBI had bought USD 12.351 billion of dollars on net basis. It had bought USD 71.764 billion and sold USD 59.413 billion in the spot market in the previous fiscal.

In fiscal 2016 too, the central bank was a net buyer of dollar to the tune of USD 10.209 billion.

In the forward dollar market, the outstanding net forward purchase at the end of November was USD 30.615 billion. The net forward purchase at the end of October was USD 31.374 billion, the data showed.