India's forex up $1.30 bn

After five consecutive weeks of falls, India's foreign exchange reserves grew by $1.30 billion to $312.73 billion for the week ended Oct 10, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

The reserves had fallen by $2.75 billion to $311.42 billion for the week ended Oct 3. It had slipped by $1.41 billion to $314.18 billion for the week ended Sep 26. Again the reserves went into decreasing trend falling by $101.3 million to $315.59 billion for the week ended Sep 19.

The exchange reserves declined by $1.61 billion to $315.69 billion for the week ended Sep 12 and for week ended Sep 5 the reserves lunged by $1.32 billion to $317.31 billion.

According to the RBI's weekly statistical supplement, foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves, rose by $1.29 billion at $286.88 billion in the week under review.

The foreign currency assets had plunged by $1.80 billion at $285.58 billion in the previous week.

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

India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gained $3.3 million to $1.54 billion.

The value of special drawing rights (SDRs) was up by $9.3 million at $4.29 billion.

The value of gold reserves was static in the week under review at $20.01 billion. The bullion had declined by $919.7 million at $20.01 billion for the week ended Oct 3.