India's forex reserves up by $203 mn

India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves increased by $203.2 million to $312.58 billion for the week ended June 6, led by a sharp rise in overseas currency assets, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

This is the first time that the reserves have increased after two consecutive weeks of fall.

The reserves had fallen by $273.8 million to $312.38 billion for the week ended May 30.Before that it had declined by $2.26 billion to $312.65 billion for the week ended May 23.

According to the RBI's weekly statistical supplement, foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves, grew by $338.9 million to $285.63 billion in the week under review.

The foreign currency assets had decreased by $269.3 million to $285.29 billion for the week ended May 30.

The RBI said the foreign currency assets, expressed in US dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies held in reserve such as the pound sterling, euro and yen.

India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased by $37 million to $1.71 billion.

The value of special drawing rights (SDRs) also grew. The SDRs were up $2.7 million to $4.45 billion.

However, the value of gold reserves fell in the period under review. The reserves were stagnant at $20.96 billion since May 2. The gold reserves declined by $175.4 million at $20.79 billion.