Forex kitty rises USD 4.6 bn to USD 471.3 bn

Mumbai, Feb 7 () The country's foreign exchange reserves swelled by USD 4.607 billion to USD 471.3 billion in the week to January 31, helped by a rise in foreign currency assets, according to RBI data.

In the sixth bi-monthly monetary policy of 2019-20 announced on Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had said foreign exchange reserves touched a lifetime high of USD 471.4 billion on February 4, 2020.

In the previous week ended January 24, the reserves had surged by USD 4.535 billion to touch USD 466.693 billion.

In the reporting week, the increase in reserves was mainly on account of a rise in foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, which rose by USD 4.329 billion to USD 437.248 billion.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

In the reporting week, gold reserves increased USD 282 million to USD 28.997 billion.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were down by USD 4 million to USD 1.43 billion. The country's reserve position with the IMF remained unchanged at USD 3.615 billion, the data showed. HV ABMABM