Forex reserves up by $1.8 bn at $302.59 bn

The country's foreign exchange reserves surged by $1.8-billion to $302.59-billion driven by a healthy increase in foreign currency assets.

The reserves had stood at $300.78-billion the week before, moving up by $158-million.

Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the foreign reserves went up by $1.548-billion for the week ended March 4, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its weekly data released this evening.

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.

India's gold reserves also shot up by $219 million to $22.14-billion for the week, the data said.

Both the Special Drawing Rights and Reserve Position in the International Monetary Fund was up marginally during the week, the RBI said.

The SDRs were at $5.20-billion, up $28-million while India's reserve position in IMF moved up $12 million to $2.28-billion, the data said.