India's foreign exchange reserves fell by $5.01 billion to $721.01 billion in the week ended October 16, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday, PTI reported.

Source: PTI via Dailyworld — India's forex reserves drop USD 5.01 billion to USD 721.01 billion in the week ended October 16, says RBI (Oct 23, 2026)

The latest decline extends a run of weekly falls in the central bank's published series. In the previous reporting week ended October 9, reserves had dropped by $8.578 billion to $726.027 billion, and in the week before that they had fallen by $12.952 billion to $734.606 billion, according to RBI data reported by PTI and ANI.

Down from a record high

The reserves had touched an all-time high of $785.706 billion in the week ended September 4, a rise the RBI's data reporting linked to a special concessional swap scheme for deposits from the diaspora, through which banks raised nearly $133 billion. The headline stock has been on a declining trend since that peak, and the latest figure sits about $64.7 billion below it.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine (PTI) — India's forex reserves fall $8.58 billion to $726.03 billion: RBI (Oct 16, 2026)

For the previous week ended October 9, the RBI data showed foreign currency assets — the largest component of the reserves — down $7.142 billion to $597.605 billion, gold reserves down $1.319 billion to $105.094 billion, Special Drawing Rights down $109 million to $18.548 billion, and India's reserve position with the IMF down $10 million to $4.78 billion. The RBI's standard note with the data says foreign currency assets expressed in dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen held in the reserves.