Forex Reserves Dip $247 M To $37.975 B

The foreign exchange reserves, which have been rising steadily in the last

couple of months, have seen a drop of $247 million to $37.975 billion as on April 28.

The fall in forex reserves was solely due to the dip in the foreign currency reserves by $247 million to $34.993 million.

According to the weekly statistical supplement issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday, gold and

special drawing rights remained unchanged at $2,974 million and $8 million, respectively. The bank credit and aggregate deposit saw a year-on-year growth of 21.5 per cent and 16.4 per cent, respectively,

 

as on April 21. In absolute terms, both credit and deposits fell over the previous fortnight.

Deposit was down by Rs 3,435 crore to Rs 835,211 crore, while credit dipped by Rs 1,928 crore to Rs 4,46,842 crore. Investments, too, slipped by Rs 7,833 crore to Rs 3,18,223 crore.

The non-food credit was down by Rs 2,490 crore to Rs 4,21,352 crore, while food credit saw a marginal rise of Rs 562 crore to Rs 25,490 crore.

The reserve money was at 3.4 per cent amounting to Rs 2,72,339 crore as on April 28, down Rs 4,790 crore over the previous week.

The government borrowing from the central bank through the ways and means route has come down by Rs 3,578 crore over the previous week to Rs 8,579 crore as on April 28. However, this is higher than the government's borrowing limit of Rs 7,500 crore for the first half of this year.

Although the RBI did not come out with an issue between April 21 and Rs April 28, the apex bank raised Rs 6,000 crore through a 10-year paper auction on May 3.

According to the RBI supplement, the gross amount mopped up by the Centre as on April 28 was Rs 11,000 crore, while the net amount collected was Rs 9,023 crore. This is against the target of Rs 86,630 crore for gross borrowing at Rs 70,276 crore for the net borrowing.

The state government borrowing from the Centre as on April 28 was also lower by Rs 3,578 crore to Rs 1,821 crore.

The commercial paper (CP) market saw trades being done in the range of 9.58 per cent to 12.25 per cent between March end and mid-April. Between January 15 and March 31, the CPs were traded in the 10-12 per cent band.

As on April 15, outstanding CPs amounted to Rs 5,634 crore.