Forex reserves scale new peak at $729.3 bn

Mumbai: India’s forex reserves jumped $12.422 billion to a new all-time high of $729.328 billion during the week ended August 21, the RBI said on Friday.

In the previous reporting week, the kitty had increased $9.905 billion to $716.907 billion. The previous all-time high had stood at $728.494 billion was attained during the week ended February 27 this year, right before the onset of the Middle East conflict. Geopolitical tensions led to several weeks of a drop as the rupee and the RBI had to intervene in the forex market through dollar sales.

For the week ended August 21, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased $9.482 billion to $591.333 billion, the central bank’s data showed.