The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) gains from foreign exchange transactions rose 52 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) during 2025-26 (FY26), according to the central bank’s annual report released on Friday.
The gains from foreign exchange transactions stood at ₹1.69 trillion in FY26 against ₹1.11 trillion during FY25.
In FY26, the central bank sold a gross $195 billion in the spot market to curb volatility in the foreign exchange market.
The rupee depreciated 9.85 per cent in FY26. In March, the Indian unit fell close to 4 per cent following the West Asia war that started in late February.
The annual accounts also showed that marking-to-market of outstanding forward contracts as on March 31, 2026, resulted in a net unrealised loss of ₹43,403 crore. This compares with a net unrealised gain of ₹6,985 crore as on March 31, 2025.
The loss was debited to the Foreign Currency Forward Contracts Valuation Account (FCVA) with a contra credit to the Provision for Forward Contracts Valuation Account (PFCVA).
The outstanding net short position of its forward pool swelled to $103.06 billion by end March from $84.3 billion a year ago.
Data showed that the central bank booked a mark-to-market net loss on outstanding forward contracts for the first time in at least five years.
The RBI said the debit balance in FCVA was adjusted against the contingency fund on March 31, 2026 and reversed on the first working day of the following year. This was in line with the extant accounting policy.
Accordingly, the balance in FCVA stood at nil at the end of FY26.
In FY26, RBI’s balance sheet size rose 20.6 per cent to ₹91.97 trillion. Increase on the assets side was due to rise in domestic investments, gold and foreign investments by 44.9 per cent, 63.8 per cent and 7.9 per cent, respectively.
On the liabilities side, revaluation accounts, notes issued, deposits and other liabilities increased by 63.4 per cent, 11.8 per cent, 11.6 per cent and 21.1 per cent, respectively.
Income for FY26 rose 26.4 per cent to ₹3.38 trillion from ₹2.67 trillion in the previous financial year. Expenditure increased 7.8 per cent to ₹50,995 crore from ₹47,286 crore.
Domestic assets constituted 29.1 per cent and foreign currency assets, gold (including gold deposit and gold held in India), loans and advances to financial institutions outside India constituted 70.9 per cent of the total assets as on March 31, 2026. This is against 25.7 per cent and 74.3 per cent, respectively, as on March 31, 2025.
A provision of ₹1.09 trillion was made and transferred to the contingency fund.
Meanwhile, the central bank’s holdings of domestic securities increased 44.9 per cent to ₹22.59 trillion as on March 31, 2026 from ₹15.59 trillion a year earlier. The increase was mainly due to net purchase of government securities during the year.
Investments comprise dated government rupee securities, state government securities and oil bonds.
The RBI held 880.52 tonnes of gold as on March 31, 2026, of which 312.32 tonnes were held as backing for notes issued.
The value of gold held as assets of the issue department rose 64.1 per cent in FY26 to ₹3.88 trillion from ₹2.37 trillion a year earlier. The increase in value was attributed to the rise in the price of gold during the year.
Balances under the Currency and Gold Revaluation Account (CGRA) increased to ₹21.69 trillion at end-March 2026 from ₹13.03 trillion a year earlier.