Foreign exchange reserves of the country have soared by $406 million to touch a new high of $45.358 billion during the week ended August 31.
According to analysts, the accretion of the forex reserves was mainly due to the revaluation of the foreign currency assets.
The reserves had seen an accretion of $361 million and touched $44.951 billion in the week ended August 24 as against $44.590 billion in the previous week ended August 17. Also, gold reserves jumped by $46 million to $2,817 million compared with the previous week.
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The special drawing rights, which forms the third component of the forex reserves, was unchanged at $4 million.
Non-food credit offtake from scheduled commercial banks has shown a minuscule 0.35 per cent (Rs 1,661 crore) growth in the fortnight ended August 24 at Rs 4,77,180 crore over the previous fortnight.
The dismal growth in non-food credit, which is a barometer of the industrial activity in the country, underscores the fact that the domestic economy is passing through a slowdown, mirroring the global trend.
The growth in bank credit, which also includes food credit, extended by these banks has nearly halved to 3.2 per cent (Rs 16,384 crore) in the fiscal so far (April 1 to August 24) as against a six per cent growth (Rs 26,307 crore) in the corresponding period in the previous financial year. The bank credit stands at Rs 5,27,818 crore as on August 24.
Similarly, total bank credit has seen a lower year-on-year (September 2000 to August 2001) growth of 14,2 per cent (Rs 65,552 crore) against a growth of 23.3 per cent (Rs 87,500 crore) in the September 1999 to August 2000 period, according to the Reserve Bank of India's latest weekly statistical supplement.
Aggregate deposits of the scheduled commercial banks have seen an accrual of Rs 5,311 crore at Rs 10,30,139 crore in the fortnight ended August 24 against Rs 3,049 crore coming into the system in the previous fortnight ended August 10.
Time deposits of the banks during the fortnight ended August 24 rose by Rs 1,995 crore and stood at Rs 8,86,262 crore, while demand deposits jumped by Rs 3,316 crore and touched Rs 1,43,877 crore.
Investments, primarily in government securities, by banks have grown by Rs 1,344 crore in the reporting fortnight to touch Rs 4,07,419 crore.
The ways and means advances, which is a temporary overdraft facility provided by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government, stood at Rs 9,453 crore as on August 31.