Mumbai: The Reserve Bank was the net purchaser of US dollar for the second time this fiscal after it net bought $2.57 billion from the spot market in May.

The central bank bought $6.01 billion from the market and sold $3.43 billion in May, RBI said in its monthly bulletin release here today.

The amount purchased in the reporting month almost halved compared with RBI’s purchase of $5.43 billion in April.

In May last year too, RBI was a net purchaser of the US currency after it bought $7.98 billion while it sold $6.19 billion from the spot market.

In 2014-15, RBI had net purchased $54.83 billion. It had bought $124.41 billion and sold $69.57 billion in the previous fiscal.

The central bank’s intervention in the foreign exchange market is aimed at curbing volatility in the currency market.

In the forwards dollar market, the outstanding net forward purchase at the end of May stood at $1.86 billion as against a purchase of $5.17 billion as of April-end.