Reserve Bank's FY26 income gets Rs 1.69 lakh crore forex boost

MUMBAI: The Indian central bank's gains from foreign exchange transactions rose 52% to Rs 1.69 lakh crore ($17.70 billion) in the fiscal year ending March, according to its annual report released on ‌Friday.

The ⁠Reserve Bank ⁠of India realises gains when it sells dollars from its reserves in the foreign exchange markets to protect the rupee, benchmarking those sales to its historical average price of dollar purchases.

In the previous ⁠year, the ‌RBI reported a Rs 1.11 lakh crore gain from forex intervention. Earlier ⁠this month, the central bank said it will transfer a record Rs 2.87 lakh crore ($29.99 billion) to the federal government for last fiscal year, ended March 2026, after a transfer to its contingency reserves.


The RBI's balance sheet expanded ‌by 20.61% to Rs 91.97 lakh crore ($961.1 billion) as of March 31, 2026.

Alongside gains from foreign ⁠exchange operations, the RBI also earned from its investments in foreign securities, such as U.S. treasuries.

Interest income from foreign securities rose to Rs 1.07 lakh crore from Rs 970.07 lakh crore in the previous year.