FE kitty up $266 m to $316.76 b

The reserves had fallen by a massive US$4.29 billion to US$316.50 billion in the previous reporting week.

The increase in reserves can be attributed to steady rise of American greenback against all leading currencies since the past one month or so. The rupee lost nearly 8 per cent in August and over 5 per cent in September. The rise in reserves comes even after reported intervention by the central bank in the forex market during the reporting week (precisely on September 14) to arrest the steep fall of the rupee by selling dollars in the market. Foreign currency assets (FCAs), the biggest component of reserves, were up by US$202 million at US$280.903 billion for the reporting period, according to RBI data.

FCAs, expressed in US dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen, held in the reserves. Gold reserves remained unchanged at US$28.319 billion. Both special drawing rights (SDRs) and reserve position in the IMF were up for the week, RBI said. SDRs were up US$2 million to US$4.549 billion while India’s reserve position in the IMF rose US$62 million to US$2.992 billion, the data showed.