Country’s forex reserves surged by a $ 5.04 billion to $ 291.3 billion in the week ended November 29, the biggest weekly gain since October 2011, helped by RBI's concessional swap windows opened in August as parts of efforts to arrest rupee fall.
The unconventional measures employed by the central bank saw the bank receiving a whopping $34 billion from the two swap windows which closed last week. As of November 29, the forex kitty swelled by $5.04 billion at $291.3 billion, the Reserve Bank said on Friday. The reporting week's gain is the biggest weekly gain since the week ended October 14, 2011, when it jumped $ 5.2 billion. The biggest weekly forex gain was recorded on the week ending July 1, 2011 when the reserves zoomed $ 6.7 billion.
The current reserves however, are still down $3.29 billion from the year-ago period, according to the RBI data. Since the new Governor Raghuram Rajan took over on September 4, the forex reserves have gained by $ 13.6 billion from $ 277.72 billion on August 30.The RBI announced a swap window for foreign currency non- resident (bank) deposits on September 4 after the import cover or balance of payment position became precarious on the back of massive fund outflows following the US Fed's tapering talk on May 17.