Forex reserves up by USD 2.086 billion

Mumbai, Apr 28: India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves were up for the 14th week in a row by USD 2.066 billion to a new all-time high of USD 157.262 billion for the week ended on April 21, according to the RBI's weekly statistical supplement.

Forex reserves were rising due to strengthening of the rupee vis-a-vis US dollar. Rupee closed 18 paise up at 44.97/98 today as compared to the previous week's close at 45.15 per US dollar.

Earlier, forex reserves had gone up by USD 987 million to 155.196 billion during the week ended on April 14.

The foreign currency assets rose to USD 150.737 billion with inflow of USD 2.056 billion, and gold reserves were unchanged at USD 5.755 billion.

SDRs (special drawing rights) rose by Rs 13 crore to rs 25 crore.

Reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased by US dollar seven million to USD 764 million.

Loans and advances of the Central Government stood at nil for the week ended on April 22 and those of the State Government were up by Rs 728 crore to 1,463 crore.

Aggregate deposits of the scheduled commercial banks rose up by Rs 25,431 crore to Rs 21, 13,100 crore for the fortnight ended on April 14.

Bank credit of the scheduled commercial banks decreased by Rs 4,153 crore to Rs 14,92, 321 crore and food credit declined by Rs 7,708 crore to Rs 32,983 crore, whereas non-food credit rose up by Rs3,555 crore to Rs 14,59,338 crore.

UNI