Inflation up at 4.13 per cent
The 10-week downturn in inflation rate was cut by violent monsoon storms in the week ended June 23, as prices of food and some manufactured items rose pushing the wholesale prices index higher to 4.13 per cent.
Inflation, which was 4.03 per cent in the previous week, is still below Reserve Bank of India’s tolerance level of five per cent for the current fiscal.
This is the fourth week in a row when inflation has remained below the five per cent mark, making a case for RBI not to increase interest rates further. Inflation for week ended April 28, was revised to 6.01 per cent as compared to the provisional figure of 5.66 per cent. This was done as WPI for the week stood at 211.6 points against the provisional figure of 210.9.
FE kitty buoys by $937 m at $213 b
The country’s foreign exchange (FE) reserves rose by US$937 million at US$213.486 billion from US$212.549 billion in the previous week, during the seven-day period ended June 29, according to Reserve Bank of India’s weekly statistical report.
The reserves had increased by US$1.534 billion during the week ended June 22 as compared to the preceding seven-day period.
The foreign currency assets were up by US$936 million to US$206.114 billion from US$205.178 billion in the last week. Moreover, the gold reserves this week remained unchanged at US$6.9 billion as also Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) remained static at US$1 million. The country’s reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has gone up by $1 million to US$460 million from US$459 million in the previous week.
The aggregate deposits of scheduled commercial banks in India went up by Rs 22,413 crore this week at Rs 26,68,187 crore from Rs 26,45,774 crore in the last week.