India's Forex Reserves Hits New All-Time High

India's foreign exchange reserves (forex) surged by a massive $6.47 billion to touch an all-time high of $513.25 billion in the week ended 3 July, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) this week. In the previous week ended 26 June, the reserves had increased by $1.27 billion to $506.84 billion.

Data from the central bank showed that in the week ended 3 July, the reserves rose due to an increase in foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, which was up by $5.66 billion to $473.26 billion.

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

The gold reserves were up by $495 million in the reporting week to $34.02 billion, RBI data showed.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose $4 million to $1.45 billion.

The country's reserve position with the IMF also increased $259 million to $4.526 billion during the reporting week, according to the data.

Earlier in the week ended 5 June, the reserves had crossed the half-a-trillion dollar mark for the first time ever, after it had increased $8.22 billion and reached $501.70 billion.