The Hindu Business Line : Forex reserves rise by $1 b

AFTER showing a massive dip for the previous two weeks, the country's forex reserves showed a notable accretion of $1.017 billion for the week ended August 6, as per the latest RBI statistics.

During the previous two weeks the decline in reserves was over $1 billion. The growth in reserves was primarily on the back of the revaluation gains made as the foreign currency assets surged $951 million to touch $113.918 billion. Analysts said revaluation on account of a weakening dollar overseas, as euro and sterling rose, contributed to the rise in reserves. They added that foreign inflows coming in on account of external commercial borrowings in addition to some inflows by way of foreign institutional investors might be another reason for the surge.

According to the RBI, foreign currency assets reflect the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, yen and pound sterling.

The gold reserves with the central bank also rose by $66 million to reach $4.123 billion.

For the week net foreign investments in the country were to the tune of $19.20 million, as per the data published by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. For the week the money parked by banks in repos with the RBI was in the range of Rs 53,000 crore-Rs 55,000 crore.