This time the budget is coming on Sunday, 1 February 2026. Before the budget, the countrymen have received great news. According to RBI data, India's foreign exchange reserves increased to $709.41 billion in the week ending January 23, 2026. This is about $8 billion more than last week. There has been an increase in Forex reserves for the last two weeks. The reason for this is that RBI did forex swaps to increase the liquidity of the rupee and at the same time the prices of gold increased. The value of gold held by the central bank now stands at $123 billion, an increase of $5.6 billion this week.
To save the rupee from weakening, RBI is continuously intervening in the market by selling dollars, as the rupee is trading near record low levels. However, dollar selling did not have much impact as prices of safe assets like gold rose and long-term forex swaps were done. RBI constantly monitors the activities of the foreign exchange market and intervenes when necessary to maintain market stability. The purpose of these steps is to prevent excessive fluctuations in the rupee, and not to save any fixed exchange rate or range.
Last week, a good increase was also seen in India's gold reserves. The value of gold reserves increased by $4.62 billion to $117.45 billion. It is clear from this that India is increasing the share of gold in its total reserves, so that the risks can be balanced in a better way.
However, there was a slight decline in SDR and it came down to $18.704 billion. At the same time, India's reserve position with the IMF also decreased marginally to $4.684 billion. RBI has again reiterated that it keeps a constant eye on the foreign exchange market. When necessary, the Central Bank intervenes in the market to prevent excessive fluctuations in the rupee. Its objective is not to stop the rupee at any one level, but to maintain balance in the market.
