A week back, the RBI issued a statement claiming that “swap facility has seen avid interest and attracted steady forex inflows”.
Till 17 July, the RBI reported that:
That totals to $20.718 billion. No more details were provided.
For FCNR(B) deposits, it was not known whether $17.406 billion are gross inflows or net. There is no information whether the FCNR(B) deposits are new inflows or NRIs converted existing non-resident external (NRE) deposits into FCNR(B).
The RBI reports their data with a lag.
The RBI bulletin, released on 22 July, has the data only until May 2026. Total NRI deposits at the end of May 2026 at $165.963 billion—FCNR(B) $34.038 billion, NRE $98.396 billion, and NRO $33.529 billion—were somewhat less than $166.720 billion a year before, and a little more than $165.654 billion at the end of March 2026.
The RBI provides weekly status of the forex reserves. The RBI debt scheme inflows affect the foreign currency asset (FCA) component of forex reserves.
As of 5 June, the RBI held $543.444 billion in FCAs ($681.610 billion total reserves).
On 17 July, as per the available data, FCAs increased to $551.057 billion (reserves $676.237 billion), recording an increase of $7.613 billion—$13.105 billion or 63 percent less than the inflows of $20.718 billion claimed to have been received by the RBI.
An argument can be made that the overall FCAs might have gone down by this amount if $20.718 billion would not have been received. One does not know. The RBI must clarify, and until such clarifications are available, doubts would persist. Net FCNR(B) inflows might actually be much less.
