India's foreign exchange reserves have burgeoned by $628 million in the week ended January 11, 2002, over the previous week, to stand at $ 48.927 billion.
Interestingly, in the period between December 14, 2001, and January 11, 2002, the reserves have jumped by as much as $1.09 billion.
In the latest reporting week, the reserves surged solely on account of foreign currency assets (FCA) increasing by $628 million.
The FCA as on January 11, 2002, stood at $46.066 billion. Gold reserves and special drawing rights (SDRs) remained unchanged at $2.856 billion and $5 million, respectively, as per the Reserve Bank of India's latest weekly statistical supplement (WSS).
The financial year 2001-02 has seen a quantum jump in the forex reserves of the country. Since the beginning of the fiscal, there has been an accretion of $6.646 billion to the forex reserves.
Economists, among others, attribute the healthy accretion to the reserves to foreign institutional investors investing in the capital markets and inflows from exporters.
According to WSS figures, non-food credit offtake from scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) in the country soared by Rs 9,909 crore in the fortnight ended December 28, 2001, as against a decline of Rs 384 crore in the preceding fortnight ended December 14, 2001.
Economists attribute the increase in non-food credit more to the government raising resources for mobilising the armed forces to the Indo-Pak border (this expenditure has not been accounted for in the budget of 2001-02 and hence becomes a contingent liability) in the wake of the tough stand taken by India on the twin issues of cross-border terrorism and Kashmir than due to actual pick up by trade and industry.
In the financial year (April 1 to December 28, 2001) so far, non-food credit, which is the prime indicator of economic activity in the country, has seen an offtake of only Rs 34,880 crore as compared to Rs 49,986 crore in the corresponding period in the previous financial year.
As on December 28, 2001, the outstanding non-food credit of the SCBs stood at Rs 5,06,323 crore. Food credit in the reporting fortnight has risen by Rs 513 crore as against an increase of Rs 34 crore in the preceding fortnight.
As on December 28, 2001, the outstanding food credit of the SCBs stood at Rs 52,276 crore. Investments by the SCBs in government securities declined by Rs 944 crore in the reporting fortnight compared to an increase of Rs 7,664 crore in the previous fortnight.
In the financial year so far investment in government securities by the SCBs was higher at Rs 58,381 crore as against Rs 47,176 crore in the corresponding period in 2000-01.
The outstanding investments by the SCBs in government securities as on December 28, 2001, stood at Rs 3,98,415 crore.
Aggregate deposits of the SCBs have increased by Rs 5,079 crore in the reporting fortnight as against an increase of Rs 647 crore in the previous fortnight. The outstanding deposits of the SCBs as on December 28, 2001, stood at Rs 10,67,707 crore.
