A fall in the reserve assets to the tune of $25.8 billion during the three-month period ended September 2008 over the previous quarter resulted in decline in India’s total external financial assets by 5.21 per cent.
According to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), during the July-September period last year, the total external financial assets stood at $358.2 billion, which is $19.7 billion lower than $377.9 billion reported in the previous quarter ended June 2008, whereas the total reserve assets in the same period shrunk by $25.8 billion to $286.3 billion from $312.1 billion.
Subsequently, the share of reserve assets in the total external financial assets declined to 79.9 per cent from 82.6 per cent reported in June 2008.
The other components of the total external financial assets include direct investment, portfolio investment and other investment.
Direct investment abroad increased by $3.2 billion over the previous quarter to $55.9 billion as against September 2008, and other investment increased by $2.9 billion over June 2008 and stood at $15.4 billion.