India’s forex reserves top $300 billion
08 Mar 2008
Mumbai: Foreign exchange reserves of the country have crossed the $300-billion mark for the first time, adding $100 billion in just 11 months.
India's foreign exchange reserves soared by a massive $6.625 billion in the week ended February 29 to $301.235 billion from $294.610 billion a week ago.
Foreign currency assets increased by $6.261 billion to $291.250 billion, Reserve Bank data showed.
Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, sterling, yen held in reserves.
Analysts attribute the current spurt in reserves to a revaluation of other major currencies like yen, pound and the euro.
Euro has appreciated by 2.4 per cent as of February 29 compared to a week ago while pound has improved by 1.4 per cent.
Though the yen has depreciated by about 2.2 per cent, the large reserves of euro and pound have helped inflate foreign currency reserves with the RBI.
