After swelling, India's forex reserves climb $456 mn to record $455 bn

The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by USD 456 million to a fresh lifetime high of USD 454.948 billion in the week to December 20, according to RBI data.

In the previous week, the reserves had swelled by USD 1.070 billion to USD 454.492 billion.

In the reporting week, the rise in reserves was mainly on account of an increase in foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, which surged by USD 311 million to USD 422.732 billion, weekly data released by the Reserve Bank on Friday showed.

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

During the reporting week, gold reserves increased by USD 164 million to USD 27.132 billion.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund dipped USD 1 million to USD 1.443 billion.

The country's reserve position with the Fund also declined by USD 17 million to USD 3.642 billion, the data showed.