How India ranks in forex reserves among peers?

   There is an interesting irony in the chart below Saudi Arabia used to have forex reserves of over $750 billion prior to 2014. Over the last 3 years Saudi Arabia has depleted over $250 billion worth of forex reserves trying to balance its budget at a time when it was selling oil at below the breakeven rates. This has resulted in the dividends of cheap oil getting transmitted to countries like India. That perhaps explains why India’s forex reserves have surged from $274 billion in 2014 to $394 billion in 2017. There is one more contrast in the top-8 list as depicted in the chart below The other 7 countries have built their forex reserves largely on the strength of their strong trade related earnings. India runs a large trade deficit of nearly $150 billion per year but this forex reserves are largely driven by FPI and FDI investment.                                       

                                                                                                                                      Source:-Angel Broking Blog.