Forex Reserves Hit A New Lifetime High; Govt Has No Outstanding Loans: RBI Data

Data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday showed that the country's reserves were up by $758 million to reach a record high of $586.082 billion in the week ended 8 January.

In the previous week ended 1 January, the reserves had increased by $4.483 billion to $585.324 billion.

Further, data for the week ended 8 January showed that the Indian government had no outstanding loans with the central bank under ways and means advances in the week.

In the reporting week, foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves, rose by $150 million to $541.791 billion.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-dollar currency units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

The gold reserves climbed by $568 million to $37.594 billion, as per RBI's weekly data.

After remaining unchanged during the last week, the special drawing rights (SDRs) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased by $5 million to $1.515 billion.

The country's reserve position with the IMF was up by $35 million to $5.181 billion in the week.

RBI's weekly statistical supplement also showed that state governments had Rs 54.60 billion ($747.03 million) loans from the central bank in the week ended 8 January when compared to compared with Rs 55.69 billion in the previous week.