Forex reserves swell by $2.5 bn to $285 bn

Foreign exchange reserves continued to rise for the second consecutive week, jumping by $2.49 billion to $285.33 billion on the back of a healthy increase in foreign currency assets and gold reserves.

The forex reserves had stood at $282.84 billion in the previous week, according to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) here today.

Foreign currency assets, a major component of the country's forex reserves, grew by a healthy $1.736 billion to $258.384 billion for the week ended September 3, from $256.648 billion the week earlier, the RBI data showed.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies, such as the euro, pound and yen, held in the reserves, the apex bank said.

Meanwhile, the gold reserves jumped $730 million to 4.635 billion for the reporting week, while both the special drawing rights (SDRs) and reserve position in the International Monetary Fund saw only a marginal rise, according to the apex bank data.

The SDRs rose by $14 million to $4.995 billion, whereas the country's reserve position in the IMF inched up by $6 million compared to the previous week to $1.941 billion, the apex bank said.

The country's foreign exchange reserves had risen by $293 million last week, after plummeting by over $4.7 billion in the fortnight before it.