Foreign exchange reserves increases by $16.6 mn to $393.73 bn

The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by $ 16.6 million to $ 393.734 billion in the week to December 7, mainly due to a rise in foreign currency assets, according to the Reserve Bank (RBI) data.

In the previous week, the reserves had increased by $ 932.8 million to $ 393.718 billion.

In the reporting week, foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, rose by $ 9.7 million to $ 368.497 billion, as per the RBI data.

Expressed in US dollars, foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen held in the reserves.

Forex reserves had touched a record high of $ 426.028 billion in the week to April 13, 2018. Since then, the forex kitty has been on a slide and is now down by over $ 31 billion.
 

Gold reserves were unchanged at $ 21.150 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased by $ 2.5 million to $ 1.457 billion.

The country's reserve position with the IMF also increased by $ 4.4 million to $ 2.630 billion, the apex bank said.