The foreign exchange reserves of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) swelled by $4.245 billion during 2000-01, to $42.281 billion, while the forward liabilities came down $966 billion to $1.259 billion.
Net of outstanding forward liabilities and use of International Monetary Fund (IMF) credit, foreign exchange reserves increased by $3.687 billion to $41.022 billion. The forex reserves as on March 31, 2001, was as high as to cover import of nine months, while debt service payments of 38 months is 12 times the short-term external debt obligation of the country.
The rise in the forex reserves could have been more, but for a decline in gold reserves by $249 million to $2.725 billion and a marginal dip of $2 million in special drawing rights (SDR) reserves to $4 million. The foreign currency assets of the central bank went up $4.496 billion to $39.554 billion.
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The apex bank's foreign currency assets improved considerably in the last five months of the financial year mainly on account of the India Millennium Deposit (IMD) inflow. Foreign currency assets during the first seven months of the fiscal in fact went down by $2.967 billion. However, following the IMD inflow, it went up by $7.463 billion in the last five months, of which, inflows other than IMD was to the tune of $2 billion.
The gold reserves fluctuated between $2.948 billion and $2.711 billion during the year. The fluctuation was mainly on account of the movements in the international gold prices as the quantity remained almost unchanged during the year.
The gold reserves in quantity terms was at 357.761 tonne as on March 31, 2001, as against 357.763 tonne as on March 31, 2000.
The RBI bought $50 million of SDR from the IMF during the fiscal, while credited $15 million of SDR on various accounts.