Forex reserves up $1 bn to $277 bn

Country's foreign exchange reserves continued their rise for the third consecutive week, backed by a healthy increase in the foreign currency assets, reaching $276.9 billion for the week ended June 25, up $1 billion, compared to the previous week.

Last week, the reserves was standing at $275.969 billion.

Foreign currency assets -- a major component of the reserves -- increased to $251.383 billion, up from $250.37 billion in the previous week, the Reserve Bank India's (RBI) weekly data showed today.

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 apex bank said.

During the week, gold reserves remained static at $19.4-billion, while the Special Drawing Rights decreased by a notch to $4.86-billion from $4.87 billion recorded in the week ago.

India's reserve position in the International Monetary Fund remained unchanged at $1.3 billion, the RBI data showed.