Forex Reserves Perk Up By $299 Million

Foreign exchange reserves rose $299 million in the week ended March 1, 2002, over the previous week. Gold reserves, which form part of the forex reserves, have perked up by $139 million during the week after remaining static for nearly a month on back of the price of the metal in the international market increasing by $5.40 per ounce.

Another contributing factor for the increase in the forex reserves is the accretion of $160 million during the reporting week to the foreign currency assets (FCAs), which also form part of the reserves. Outstanding FCAs as on March 1 was at $47.682 billion.

Special drawing rights remained static at $10 billion, while gold reserves increased from $2.913 billion as on February 22 to $3.052 billion as on March 1, according to the Reserve Bank of India