Crossing the $300 billion mark, India's foreign exchange reserves continued to surge for the fifth straight week to $303.67 billion as of March 28, up $5.03 billion over the week earlier, RBI data said.
In the previous reporting week ending March 21, 2014, the forex reserves had increased by $1.35 billion to $298.64 billion. Since the RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan assumed charge at the central bank on September 4, the reserves have risen by over $25 billion.
Among the reserves, foreign currency assets jumped the most by $5.01 billion to $276.41 billion, said RBI.
Gold reserves remained unchanged at $20.98 billion. Statutory Drawing Rights declined a tad to $4.46 billion, while India's Reserve Tranche position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was almost unchanged at $1.83 billion.
As the rupee appreciated to below 60 levels, the RBI has bought $5 billion, including dollars purchased on maturity of swaps with oil companies since mid-March, according to a report released by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
“The RBI will need to recoup about $80 billion of forex reserves to stabilise the rupee,” says the report.
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