Forex kitty zooms by $2.36 billion

After two massive successive falls when they cumulatively lost $6.322 billion, the foreign exchange reserves rose by a healthy $2.359 billion in the week to September 11, according to RBI data.

With this rise, the reserves have once again crossed the $350-billion mark to stand at $351.390 billion.

Foreign currency assets (FCAs), which account for 93% of reserves, grew by $2.3111 billion to $327.968 billion in the reporting week, RBI said in a statement.

FCAs reflect the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen, held in the reserves.

It can be recalled that dollar selling by the central bank had wiped out $6.3 billion in the two weeks before the current reporting week as it tried to prevent sharp fall of the rupee following the crisis in global financial markets arising from the troubles in the Chinese economy.

Today, the rupee rallied to 65.67 per US dollar, gaining 79 paise after the US Fed deferred the plan to end its near zero interest rates of the past eight years.

In the week to September 4, the foreign exchange reserves had declined by $2.889 billion to $349.037 billion due to the continuing fall in FCAs.

In the previous reporting week, the reserves fell sharply by $3.433 billion to $351.920 billion.

The reserves had touched an all-time high of $355.46 billion in the week to June 19.