Forex reserves rise by USD 2.238 bn to record USD 146.159 bn

Mumbai, Mar 24 (UNI) Foreign Exchange Reserves (Forex) went up for the ninth week in a row by US dollar 2.238 billion to record USD 146.159 billion for the week ended on March 17, according to the weekly supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The reserves had gone up by US dollar 773 million to USD 143.921 billion for the week ended on March 10.

Foreign currency assets rose by USD 2.234 billion to USD 139.653 billion, the RBI said.

Gold reserves were unchanged at USD 5.747 billion, while that of SDRs were unchanged at Rs 12 crore.

The reserve tranche position with the IMF increased by USD four million to USD 756 million.

Loans and advances of the Central government remained nil for the week ended on March 3. The loans and advances of the State governments decreased by Rs 788 crore during the week ended on March 10 to nil.

The aggregate deposits with the scheduled commercial banks were down by Rs 23,162 crore to Rs 19,94,226 crore for the fortnight ending on March 3, the Central bank said.

The bank credits rose up by Rs 20,844 crore to Rs 14,19,884 crore during the same period.

The food credit was up by Rs 920 crore to Rs 41,448 crore and non-food credit was up by Rs 19,925 crore to Rs 13,78,436 crore.

Meanwhile, the rupee ended weaker by 16 paise at 44.65/66 per USD, as compared to last week's close at 44.49/50 UNI RRP KU SKB1809