Revaluation impact, foreign fund flows lift India s Forex reserves

Mumbai Jan 27 (IANS) Revaluation impact of US dollar weakness along with inflow of foreign funds lifted India s foreign exchange (Forex) reserves by $959.1 million as on January 19 2018.

"The up-tick in reserves during the previous week can be due to revaluation impact from US dollar weakness " Anindya Banerjee Deputy Vice President for Currency and Interest Rates with Kotak Securities told IANS.

According to the Reserve Bank of India s (RBI) weekly statistical supplement released on January 26 2018 showed that the overall Forex reserves rose to $414.78 billion from $413.82 billion reported for the week ended January 12.

India s Forex reserves comprise foreign currency assets (FCAs) gold reserves special drawing rights (SDRs) and the RBI s position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Segment-wise FCAs -- the largest component of the Forex reserves -- increased by $934.6 million to $390.76 billion during the week under review.

Besides the US dollar FCAs consist of nearly 20-30 per cent of major global currencies. It also includes investments in US Treasury bonds bonds of other selected governments and deposits with foreign central and commercial banks.

The country s gold reserves value remained stagnant at $20.42 billion.

However SDRs inched up by $10.4 million to $1.53 billion. Similarly the country s reserve position with the IMF rose by $14.1 million to $2.06 billion.

--IANS
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