Forex reserves soar past USD 400 billion mark again

The forex reserves stood at USD 401.776 billion in the reporting week.

Mumbai: The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by USD 2.599 billion in the week to March 1 to reclaim the USD 400 billion-mark, RBI data showed.

The forex reserves stood at USD 401.776 billion in the reporting week. In the previous week, the reserves had risen by USD 944.7 million to USD 399.217 billion.

In the reporting week, foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, swelled by USD 2.061 billion to USD 374.060 billion.

Expressed in US dollars, foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen held in the nation's reserves.

The reserves had touched a lifetime high of USD 426.028 billion in the week to April 13, 2018. Since then, the forex kitty has been on a slide and is now down by over USD 25 billion.

After remaining unchanged for the past few weeks, gold reserves rose by USD 488.7 million to USD 23.253 billion in the reporting week, according to the data.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund also rose by USD 3 million to USD 1.463 billion.

The country's reserve position with the Fund too increased by USD 6.2 million to USD 2.999 billion, the apex bank said.

(Inputs from PTI)