Forex reserves soar to $365.4 bn
08/08/2016 00:13
The country’s foreign exchange reserves climbed by USD 2.8 billion to USD 365.4 billion in the week ended July 29, 2016 driven by a rise in the value of foreign currency assets, putting Asia’s third biggest economy on a good stead to stave off any potential impact of continued global headwinds including post Brexit jitters, China slowdown, falling oil prices and uncertainty over US interest rate hikes. In the week ended July 22, 2016, Indian forex reserves had fallen by USD 664 million to USD 362.687 billion from the prior week, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed. Foreign currency assets, which are expressed in dollar terms and include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non US currencies such as euro, pound and yen held in reserves climbed by USD 2.786 billion in the week ended July 29, 2016 from the previous week, the RBI added. Foreign currency assets are the biggest component of the overall forex reserves. The RBI has been bolstering its foreign exchange reserves kitty ahead of the FCNR (B) maturities set for September which is expected to cause an outflow of about USD 30 billion. Further, robust foreign fund inflows may continue into India amidst a strong monsoon and the clearance to the long pending GST bill that have vastly improved the country’s macro-economic outlook.
