India's forex reserves jump to $354.29 bn

The country's foreign exchange reserves rose by $1.57 billion to $354.29 billion for the week ended June 12 on a surge in core currency assets, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.

The overall reserves rose by $239.4 million to $352.713 billion in the previous reporting week.

Foreign currency assets, a major component of overall reserves, rose $1.569 billion to $329.58 billion in the reporting week, the RBI data showed.

Foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation and depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, pound and yen held in the reserves.

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

The gold reserves were flat at $19.340 billion at the end of the reporting week, the central bank said.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund were up by $4.2 million to $4.05 billion, while the country's reserve position with the fund also increased by $3.3 million to $1.31 billion, the data showed.