The Hindu Business Line : Forex reserves up $20 m

THE country's forex reserves continued the upward trend for the sixth consecutive week, albeit with a marginal accretion of $20 million to the forex kitty to $119.304 billion, for the week ended October 8, as per the latest RBI statistics.

In the previous week, reserves had gone up to $119.284 billion on back of a $515-million surge.

"The accretion might be due to appreciation in foreign currencies in the central bank's basket of currencies. But such minor accretions do not warrant a serious analysis," said the Forex head at a large private sector bank.

Foreign currency assets jumped by $21 million to $113.809 billion as compared to $113.788 billion in the preceding week, according to the RBI's Weekly Statistical Supplement.

The Reserve Tranche Position (RTP) in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of the RBI dipped by $1 million to $1.302 billion. The Gold and Special Drawing Rights remained static at $4.192 billion and $1 million respectively.

During the week, amount parked in the repos with the RBI ranged between Rs 13,340 crore and Rs 20,640 crore.