New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that the country's foreign exchange reserves have increased to $576.98 billion in six months as on March 31, 2021 from $544.69 billion at the end of September last year. Foreign Exchange Assets (FCA), a large part of the total currency reserves, have increased to $536.693 billion at the end of March 2021 from $502.162 billion earlier in September 2020.

Foreign exchange reserves, excluding valuation changes on balance of payments basis, have increased by $83.9 billion during April-December 2020, compared to $40.7 billion in the period a year ago. In terms of value, gold's share in the total foreign exchange reserves has declined from 6.69 per cent in September 2020 to 5.87 per cent on March 31, 2021, the report said. Gold reserves stood at $33.88 billion at the end of March 2021 from $36.429 billion in September 2020.

RBI has said that under the Government Securities Acquisition Programme G-SAP 1.0, government securities worth Rs 35,000 crore will be purchased from the open market under the second instalment on May 20, 2021. The move is being taken in an attempt to keep the bond return stable and orderly. After the Monetary Policy Committee meeting last month, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that RBI under G-SAP 1.0 will conduct open market procurement activities of government securities worth Rs 1 lakh crore in the first quarter of FY 2020-21. The first such auction of Rs 25,000 crore was held on April 15.

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