RBI net seller of dollars in December, sells USD 179 mn

After remaining a net purchaser of dollars for two consecutive months, the Reserve Bank net sold USD 179 million in December at the spot market.
The central bank bought USD 2.620 billion from the spot market while it sold USD 2.799 billion in the reporting month, RBI said in its monthly bulletin released today.
The apex bank had net purchased USD 1.934 billion and USD 15 million in October and November, respectively.
Last year in December, RBI had net purchased USD 6.739 billion as it bought USD 17.908 billion and sold USD 11.169 billion in the market.
In 2014-15, RBI was net purchaser of USD 54.837 billion, when it had bought USD 124.414 billion and sold USD 69.577 billion.

The central bank does not target any particular level of the rupee and intervenes in the market only to curb volatility.

"We don't pick a level (of rupee) and say we need to go there because others (currencies) have moved. We let the markets direct us towards the level it wants," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had told reporters last week.
In the forwards dollar market, the outstanding net forward purchase at the end December was USD 1.987 billion as against purchase of USD 1.487 billion as of end November.
In the currency futures segment, RBI sold and purchased USD 1.220 billion each.