Mumbai: The nation's foreign exchange reserves continued to hit new highs for the seventh week on the trot adding close to $3 billion to touch a new high of $648.56 billion for the week ending April 5.
They were driven primarily by the record run that gold has been clocking of late, the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India shows.
In the previous reporting week ending March 29 too the reserves had added $2.96 billion while for the reporting week the addition has been $2.98 billion.
The rise in reserves has been led by the yellow metal, which has been on fire for many months now. The RBI has also been adding to the gold reserves of late, and has snapped up two tonnes in 2024 alone.
According to the latest weekly statistical supplement from the central bank, foreign currency assets, which is the major component of the forex assets, rose by $549 million to $571.17 billion, while gold reserves grew by $2.4 billion to $54.56 billion.
The yellow metal was trading at $2,412 an ounce on the Chicago exchange on Friday, gaining over $34 an ounce from the previous close. The bullion has been gaining as the rate cut hope by the US Fed has been receding following more than expected reading of their retail inflation numbers.
Expressed in the US dollar terms, the foreign currency assts include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units such as the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
During the reporting week, gold reserves expanded by $2.4 billion to $54.56 billion, whereas SDRs or the Special Drawing Rights with the IMF rose $24 million to $18.17 billion.
The reserve position in the IMF was also up $9 million to $4.67 billion.
