Forex reserves up by USD 2.503 bn to record USD148.662 bn

Mumbai, Mar 31 (UNI) Foreign Exchange Reserves (Forex) went up for the tenth week in a row by US dollar 2.503 billion to record USD 148.662 billion for the week ended on March 24, according to the weekly supplement released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The reserves had gone up by US dollar 2.238 billion to USD 146.159 billion for the week ended on March 17.

Foreign currency assets rose by USD 2.506 billion to USD 142.159 billion, 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 decreased by USD three million to USD 753 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 1,229 crore during the week ended on March 24 to nil.

The aggregate deposits with the scheduled commercial banks were up by Rs 9,549 crore to Rs 20,03,775 crore for the fortnight ending on March 17, the Central bank said.

The bank credits rose up by Rs 20,706 crore to Rs 14,42,591 crore during the same period.

The food credit was up by Rs 377 crore to Rs 41,825 crore and non-food credit was up by Rs 22,329 crore to Rs 14,00,766 crore.

Meanwhile, the rupee ended this week stronger by three paise at 44.62/63 per USD, as compared to last week's close at 44.65/66.

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