Forex kitty swells USD 1.82 bn to USD 476.5 bn

The foreign exchange reserves gained by a healthy USD 1.815 billion to USD 476.475 billion for the week to April 10, as per the latest weekly data from the Reserve Bank released on Friday.

The forex reserves had declined by USD 902 million to USD 474.660 billion in the week to April 3, due to the fall in foreign currency assets. In the week before, the reserves had surged by USD 5.65 billion to USD 475.561 billion.

On a year-on-year basis, the forex reserves had rallied by a whopping USD 61.6 billion as of April 10, according to the RBI data. During FY21 also, the foreign exchange reserves have risen by almost USD 62 billion.

The reserves had touched an all-time high of USD 487.23 billion in the week to March 6, after it rose by USD 5.69 billion. Since then the reserves had been falling as the rupee was on free-fall. In the second week of March it has fallen the steepest - a whopping USD 11.9 billion as the RBI was forced to defend the rupee.

For the reporting week, the foreign currency assets, which form the major chunk of the reserves, gained by USD 1.222 billion to USD 440.338 billion, which on a year-on-year basis has jumped by USD 53.576 billion.

In the previous week ending April 3, the same had declined USD 547 million to USD 439.116 billion.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

As against a decline of USD 340 million to USD 30.550 billion in the previous week, the gold reserves rose to USD 31.136 billon, up by USD 586 million on a weekly basis and on an annualised level it had gained USD 7.832 billion.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has risen by USD 5 million to USD 1.427 billion, fell USD 4 million to USD 1.424 billion, marking a net decline of USD 35 million annualised.

The country's reserve position with the IMF, which dipped USD 19 million to USD 3.566 billion in the previous week, gained by USD 11 million to USD 3.578billion on a weekly basis and gained by USD 216 million annualised.