Forex kitty gets bigger, now at life-time high of $355.5 billion

Foreign exchange reserves jumped US $1.17 billion to touch a new record high of US $355.46 billion in the week to June 19, driven by a jump in foreign currency assets, according to RBI data.

In the previous week, the reserves had risen US $1.574 billion to US $354.28 billion.

Foreign currency assets, a major component of overall reserves, swelled US $1.13 billion to US $330.71 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.

Expressed in dollar terms, these include the effect of appreciation and depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen held in the reserves.

According to an HSBC report, the country's foreign exchange reserves are above traditional levels, but the country's peculiar characteristics and experience in recent crises suggest that about US $60 billion more could buffer sufficiently a prolonged global financial tightness.

"We estimate an additional US $60 billion of reserves, taking overall holdings to US $420 billion, could take care of key vulnerabilities such as unhedged external commercial debt, short-term external debt and portfolio outflows," the report said.

In FY15, there was an accretion of foreign exchange reserves to the tune of US $61.4 billion compared with US $15.5 billion last year.

In the week to June 19, the country's gold reserves remained unchanged at US $19.34 billion.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund were up by US $26.6 million to US $4.07 billion while the country's reserve position with the fund surged US $8.5 million to US $1.32 billion, the data showed.