The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by USD 8.895 billion to reach a record high of USD 642.453 billion in the week ended September 3, RBI data showed. In the previous week ended August 27, the reserves had surged USD 16.663 billion to USD 633.558 billion, mainly due to a rise in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) holdings. International Monetary Fund (IMF) had made an allocation of SDR 12.57 billion to India.
For the week ended September 3, the increase was on account of a rise in foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves, Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) weekly data released on Friday showed. FCA rose by USD 8.213 billion to USD 579.813 billion in the reporting week, according to the data.
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. Gold reserves were up by USD 642 million to USD 38.083 billion in the reporting week, as per the data.
The special drawing rights (SDRs) with the IMF rose by USD 29 million to USD 19.437 billion. The country's reserve position with the IMF increased by USD 11 million to USD 5.121 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.
(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)
