Forex reserves rebound on strong inflows

Mumbai: India’s forex reserves jumped by $10.512 billion to $692.866 billion during the week ended July 31, the RBI said on Friday.

The overall kitty had jumped by $6.118 billion to $682.354 billion in the previous reporting week.

Reserves had expanded to an all-time high of $728.494 billion during the week ended February 27 this year before the onset of the West Asia conflict, which led to several weeks of drop as the rupee came under pressure and the RBI had to intervene in the forex market through dollar sales.

For the week ended July 31, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by $8.75 billion to $564.68 billion, the central bank’s data showed.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units, such as the euro, pound, and yen, held in the foreign exchange reserves.

It can be recalled that the central bank and the government had launched a series of measures to attract more forex flows into the country last month, including the FCNR(B) measure.