Forex reserves up by $485 mn to $279 bn

India's foreign exchange reserves rose by $485-million for the week ended February 12 to $279.2 billion against $278.7 billion in the previous week.

Foreign currency assets, during the week, jumped to $254.7-billion, up $521-million, as compared to $254.2-billion in the week-ago period, the RBI said in its weekly statistical supplement.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as Euro, Sterling and Yen held in the reserves, the RBI said.

Country's gold reserves, during the week, stood unchanged at $18.1-billion while the special drawing rights (SDR) slightly declined to $5.054 billion from $5.082-billion in the previous week.

During the week, India's reserve position in the international monetary fund also fell to $1.393-billion as compared to $1.401-billion a week ago.