Forex kitty gets bigger, now at life-time high of $355.5 bn

Foreign exchange reserves jumped USD 1.17 billion to touch a new record high of USD 355.46 billion in the week to June 19, driven by a jump in foreign currency assets, according to RBI data.
In the previous week, the reserves had risen USD 1.574 billion to USD 354.28 billion.
Foreign currency assets, a major component of overall reserves, swelled USD 1.13 billion to USD 330.71 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.
Expressed in dollar terms, these include the effect of appreciation and depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen held in the reserves.

According to an HSBC report, the country's foreign exchange reserves are above traditional levels, but the country's peculiar characteristics and experience in recent crises suggest that about USD 60 billion more could buffer sufficiently a prolonged global financial tightness.
"We estimate an additional USD 60 billion of reserves, taking overall holdings to USD 420 billion, could take care of key vulnerabilities such as unhedged external commercial debt, short-term external debt and portfolio outflows," the report said.

In FY15, there was an accretion of foreign exchange reserves to the tune of USD 61.4 billion compared with USD 15.5 billion last year.

In the week to June 19, the country's gold reserves remained unchanged at USD 19.34 billion.
The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund were up by USD 26.6 million to USD 4.07 billion while the country's reserve position with the fund surged USD 8.5 million to USD 1.32 billion, the data showed.