RBI's forex reserves climb to an all-time high of $ 343 bn

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s foreign exchange reserves hit an all-time high of $ 343 billion for the week ending April 3, shows the data released on Friday. The rise in reserves was $ 1.63 billion.

This is the ninth time this year foreign exchange reserves touched an all-time high.

Foreign currency assets, a key component, rose by $ 2.40 billion to $ 318.64 billion. The reserves have been rising because the central bank has been mopping dollar flows through state-run banks.

During the week gold reserves fell by $ 799 million to $ 19.04 billion.

For the week under review, the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) rose by $ 16.7 million to $ 4.02 billion, while India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was up $ 5.4 million to $ 1.30 billion.

In the meanwhile, RBI also released data on its foreign currency operations in February according to which net purchases stood at $ 7.84 billion compared with $ 12.14 billion the previous month. The outstanding net forward purchases was at $ 5.83 billion compared with $ 5.58 billion the previous month.