The foreign currency assets of the country burgeoned by $692 million in the week ended March 8, 2002, over the preceding week. Continuing interest of the foreign institutional investors in the capital markets, and inward remittances of exporters have helped build up a reserves warchest of $51.436 billion as on March 8.
In the last five months alone, forex reserves of the country have surged by $6.299 billion, while since the beginning of the current financial year, there has been an accretion of $9.384 billion. In the reporting week, growth in the reserves was solely on account of a $692 million jump in the foreign currency assets (FCAs). As on March 8, FCAs stood at $48.374 billion. The gold reserves and special drawing rights remained unchanged at $3.052 billion and $10 million respectively.
Foreign exchange reserves rose by $299 million in the week ended March 1, over the previous week. The gold reserves, which form part of the forex reserves, had perked up by $139 million during the reporting week after remaining static for nearly a month on the back of the price of gold in the international market increasing by $5.40 an ounce during the said period.
As per the latest weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the aggregate deposits of the scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) have grown by Rs 5,417 crore in the reporting fortnight ended February 22. The SCBs
