Forex reserves up $960 m

Foreign exchange reserves shot up by $960.2 million to $280.17 billion driven by a healthy rise in currency assets in the week ended July 26, the Reserve Bank said in its ‘Weekly Statistical Supplement’. In the previous reporting week, the total reserves had declined by $985.4 million to $279.20 billion. A weaker Indian currency and decline in gold prices have weighed on the country’s forex reserves. The total reserves fell 4.6 per cent in the first three months of fiscal 2013-14 to stand at $280.2 billion as of July 12, 2013, according to ‘Business Line Research’ data. For the week under review, foreign currency assets, a major component of the forex reserves, increased by $914.1 million to $252.05 billion, the RBI data said. Gold reserves remained unchanged at $21.55 billion for the second consecutive week. The special drawing rights were up $30.8 million to $4.374 billion, while India’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund grew by $15.3 million to $2.182 billion, the data said.

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