RBI's foreign exchange reserves rise by $3.16 bn

Foreign currency assets rises by $3.31 bn to $295.67 bn

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) foreign exchange reserves rose by $3.16 billion for the week ending December 19 to $320 billion, shows Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data released Friday.

Foreign exchange reserves are now very close to the all-time high level which was seen in the week ending September 2, 2011 at $320.79 billion. The rise in reserves was the second sharpest rise in 2014. The previous was in the week ending March 28 by a little over $5 billion to $303.67 billion.

Foreign currency assets, a key component of reserves rose by $3.31 billion to $295.67 billion. The rise was despite weakening in the euro which also forms a part of foreign exchange reserves. Euro had weakened against the dollar by nearly 2% during the week. Gold reserves remained unchanged during the week at $18.99 billion.

“Between December 13-19 this type of money had not come to India. It was other way round when the rupee was under pressure. This would have been a result of RBI's forward buying earlier this year. The maturity of the same would have fallen during this week,” said Ashutosh Khajuria, president (treasury), Federal Bank.

For the week under review, the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) fell by $29.2 million to $4.20 billion, while India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund was down $117.6 million to $1.14 billion.