Rbi Dividend Brings Down Wma Level To Rs 8563 Crore

The dividend payment of Rs 9,350 crore by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the Central government, has pulled down the ways and means advances (WMA) by Rs 259 crore to Rs 8,563 crore from Rs 8,822 during the week ended August 17. The low WMA figure negated the possibility of a big auction during the week.

The chief dealer of a private sector bank said: "The redemption of Rs 8,500 crore of 11.75 per cent 2001 paper on Saturday gives rise to the possibility of another auction during the week. But given the latest WMA figure, it should not be in excess of Rs 5,000 crore." The loans and advances to the state governments dropped by Rs 671 crore during the week ended on August 17 to Rs 4,397 crore.

Non-food credit off-take of the Indian banking industry continued to go up raising the possibility of an industrial recovery.

The non-food credit provided by the scheduled commercial banks rose Rs 2,362 crore during the fortnight ended August 10 to Rs 4,75,519 crore. Food credit increased by Rs 157 crore to Rs 51,184 crore. Aggregate credit outstanding of the banking industry went up by Rs 2,519 crore (0.5 per cent) during the fortnight to Rs 5,26,703 crore.

Aggregate deposit of the scheduled commercial banks registered a growth of Rs 3,049 crore (0.3 per cent) during the fortnight. The growth could have been more but for a Rs 1,877 crore decline in demand deposit. Time deposit of the banks went up Rs 4,926 crore.

Investments made by the commercial banks for the statutory liquidity ratio requirement fell marginally by Rs 657 crore during the fortnight ended July 27 to Rs 4,06,076 crore. The decline in the investment was mainly because of the dip in investment in government securities. Investment in the gilts during the fortnight fell by Rs 550 crore, while the same in other approved securities dropped Rs 110 crore.

Money supply, measured in terms of M3, went up by Rs 6,826 crore (0.5 per cent) during the fortnight to Rs 13,89,108 crore. Reserve money increased by Rs 1,462 crore (0.5 per cent) to Rs 3,03,662 crore during the week ended on August 17.

Foreign exchange reserves inched towards the $45-billion mark. The reserves went up by $455 million during the week ended August 17 to $44.590 billion. The growth in forex reserves in the reporting week could have been more, but for $5 million fall in the special drawing rights reserves to $4 million. The foreign currency assets went up by $460 million during the week to $41.485 billion. Gold reserves, however, remained unchanged at $2.771 billion.