MUMBAI, May 17 Reuters The Reserve Bank of India sold a net 20.1 billion in the spot foreign exchange market in the month of March to support the rupee against the U.S. dollar, its monthly bulletin showed on Tuesday.

The central bank said its net outstanding forward dollar purchases rose to 65.79 billion at the end of March compared to 49.11 billion as of end February. In February, the RBI had sold a net 771 million in the spot market.

The rupee moved in a band of 75.76 to 76.97 in the month of March.

In March, the rupee hit its first record low for the year, breaking below 76.9050 per dollar which was last touched on April 22, 2020 amid the COVID19 pandemic.

The unit has now been hitting multiple record lows over the last two weeks on the back of broad strength in the dollar and severe risk aversion, touching a life low of 77.7975 earlier in the day.

Given that the RBI has ample FX reserves, we expect the rupee to remain more stable and weaken less than most other EM emerging market currencies against the greenback over the next couple of years, Adam Hoyes, assistant economist at Capital Economics, said in a note.

India39;s foreign exchange reserves fell to 595.95 billion as of May 6, compared with 597.73 billion a week earlier, latest RBI data last week showed.

Reserves had touched a record high of 642.45 billion in early September 2021.

The central bank in its bulletin also said inflation pressures were increasingly becoming generalised across commodity…