Forex reserves scale fresh high
22/08/2016 00:08
Marking a third straight weekly gain, the country’s foreign exchange reserves have reached a new all-time high driven by a surge in foreign currency assets, putting Asia’s third biggest economy on a good stead in the wake of continued global headwinds including Brexit jitters, China slowdown, weakness in commodity prices and a potential US interest rate hike before the end of the year. Foreign exchange reserves rose by USD 73.2 million to USD 365.82 billion in the week to August 12, 2016, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said. In the week ended August 5, 2016, India’s forex reserves climbed by USD 253.6 million to USD 365.749 billion from the prior week. Foreign currency assets, which are expressed in dollar terms and include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non US currencies such as euro, pound and yen held in reserves climbed by USD 81.6 million to USD 340.36 billion in the week ended August 12, 2016 from the previous week, the RBI added. Foreign currency assets are the biggest component of the overall forex reserves. Gold reserves were unchanged at USD 21.584 billion in the week ended August 12. The RBI has been bolstering its foreign exchange reserves kitty ahead of the FCNR (B) maturities set for September which is expected to cause an outflow of about USD 30 billion.
