Forex reserves soar over USD 5 bn to reach USD 412 bn

The maiden dollar-rupee swap conducted by the central bank last week helped the country's foreign exchange reserves swell by a healthy USD 5.237 billion to USD 411.905 billion in the week to March 29, RBI data showed Friday.

In the previous week, the reserves had increased by USD 1.029 billion to USD 406.667 billion.

Foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, swelled by USD 5.248 billion to USD 384.053 billion in the reporting week.

Expressed in dollars, foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies like the euro, pound and the yen held in the reserves.

In a bid to infuse liquidity into the system, the Reserve Bank had on March 26 conducted a USD 5 billion dollar-rupee swap auction, which received bids for over USD 16 billion.

Following the huge response, the central bank announced another round of USD 5 billion swap auction to be held on April 23 for a three-year tenor.

The forex reserves had touched a life-time high of USD 426.028 billion in the week to April 13, 2018. Since then, it has been on a slide and is now down by around USD 14 billion.

Gold reserves remained unchanged at USD 23.408 billion in the reporting week, according to data from the central bank.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dipped by USD 3.6 million to USD 1.456 billion.

The country's reserve position with the fund too decreased by USD 7.4 million to USD 2.986 billion, the apex bank said.