RBI data show forex reserves down $18.34 billion in the week to 25 September

India's foreign-exchange reserves fell by 18.34 billion dollars in the week ended 25 September 2026, to 747.56 billion dollars, the Reserve Bank of India reported. The table went up on the RBI site on 2 October and was still the latest weekly print on 5 October. In rupees, total reserves were 71,64,287 crore, down 1,78,698 crore on the week.

Almost all of the drop was foreign currency assets. Those stood at 615.41 billion dollars, down 15.57 billion on the week. Gold holdings were marked at 108.70 billion dollars, down 2.59 billion. Special drawing rights were 18.64 billion dollars, down 97 million. The reserve position at the International Monetary Fund was 4.80 billion dollars, down 86 million. The four lines add to the headline. Currency assets explain about 85 percent of the weekly loss. The gold line explains most of the rest.

A weekly fall of this size is not a valuation footnote. Foreign currency assets move when the RBI sells dollars, when the dollar rises against the currencies in the basket, and when deposits shift. The RBI does not split the 15.57 billion dollars into intervention and valuation in the public table. Readers who want that split have to wait for the bulletin's later note, or infer it from the rupee. A fall that large, in a week when the rupee has been under pressure from oil, is consistent with dollars leaving the reserve to meet demand in the onshore market. It is also consistent with a mark-to-market hit. Both can be true in the same seven days.

The gold line is easier to read against the metal's own price. Gold holdings fell 2.59 billion dollars on the week even though the volume of gold the RBI owns does not change every Friday. The July bulletin put the stock near 880.52 metric tonnes and held that figure steady across several July weeks. A dollar fall in the gold line with a stable tonne count is a price mark. Gold's later swing, a 3.4 percent drop in the week before 5 October and a print near 4,140 dollars, will show up in a future reserve table, not in this one. This table stops at 25 September.

Compared with the end of March 2026, the RBI's own columns show total reserves still higher by 56.45 billion dollars. The weekly drop has not wiped the year's gain. It has taken a noticeable slice of it. Foreign currency assets are up 63.13 billion dollars since end-March on the same table, which means the valuation and flow picture since March is still positive even after this week. Gold is down 6.69 billion dollars since end-March in that column. The week to 25 September made that gold gap wider.

The exclusions matter if someone is comparing this table with an older one. The RBI keeps SDR holdings out of the foreign-currency line, leaves out bonds issued by IIFC (UK), leaves out SAARC and ACU currency-swap lending, and leaves out its contribution to Nexus Global Payments. A headline of 747.56 billion dollars is the defined reserve, not every dollar-linked asset on the central bank's book.

The timing sits under a more expensive import bill. Brent was still above 101 dollars a barrel on 5 October. A shut Strait of Hormuz and a fuel surcharge at IndiGo are the retail and wholesale versions of the same pressure. Reserves at 747.56 billion dollars remain large by any recent Indian standard. A single week that removes 18.34 billion dollars shows how fast the cushion moves when oil and the dollar push the same way.

The next Friday table will tell whether 25 September was a one-week defence of the rupee or the start of a run of declines. Until that print, the usable figures are 747.56 billion dollars total, 615.41 billion in currency assets, and 108.70 billion in gold.