Wma Jumps Rs 1372 Crore To Cross Rs 10000 Crore

The ways and means advances (WMA) of the Union government crossed the Rs 10,000 crore limit set for the first half of the current financial year for the fifth time.

The WMA went up by Rs 1,372 crore to Rs 11,871 crore during the week ended on June 15. This forced the Central government to privately place Rs 4,000 crore worth 11.03 per cent government security maturing in 2012 with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on June 20.

The central bank was able to sell the security through the open market window on the next day as the liquidity situation in the market stood comfortable.

 

The chief source of funds in the current fiscal has been the huge deposits mobilised by the commercial banks. Aggregate deposits of the banking industry in the first two months of the current fiscal jumped by Rs 45,024 crore to Rs 10,03,032 crore compared with a growth of Rs 28,193 crore last fiscal.

The huge funds mobilised by the banks, however, has been left unused due to the lacklustre credit offtake. Credit off-take of scheduled commercial banks rose by Rs 6,611 crore in the first two months compared with the Rs 8,388 crore credit offtake during the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Non-food credit extended by the banking industry dipped by Rs 2,129 crore to Rs 4,66,962 crore, though food credit went up by Rs 8,740 crore to Rs 48,731 crore.

Notwithstanding the credit offtake, investment growth in the first two months of the fiscal remained higher at Rs 28,433 crore against Rs 22,486 crore during the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Investment by commercial banks touched Rs 3,98,266 crore on June 1. Investments in government securities rose by Rs 28,284 crore, while that in other approved securities jumped by Rs 149 crore.

Foreign exchange reserves of the RBI rose by $153 million to $43.160 billion during the week ended June 16. The growth in forex reserves is solely on account of a $153 million accretion of foreign currency assets.

Foreign currency assets as on the reporting week stands at $40.34 billion. Gold reserves and special drawing rights were static at $2.816 billion and $4 million, respectively.

Money supply rose by 0.1 per cent (Rs 1,758 crore) to Rs 13,67,451 crore in the fortnight ended June 1 over the previous 15 days. Reserve money improved by 5.7 per cent (Rs 17,107 crore) to Rs 3,17,314 crore in the week ended June 8 over the previous week.