India's forex reserves up $332 mn

India's foreign exchange reserves rose by $332 million during the week ended October 15, 2004, compared to $20 million a week earlier.

Foreign currency exchange reserves for the week under review grew by $332 million to $119.636 billion, the Reserve Bank of India said in its weekly statistical supplement released on Saturday.

RBI's forex kitty has seen an inflow of over $800 million in this month.The foreign currency assets were also up by $326 million to $114.135 billion, RBI said.

Special Drawing Rights and gold remained static at $4.192 billion and $1 million, respectively, the central bank said. India's Reserve Tranche Position with International Monetary Fund rose by $6 million and stood at $1.308 billion, it said.

Loans and advances to central government had a nil balance while that to state governments were up by Rs 1,751 crore (Rs 17.51 billion) to Rs 5,382 crore (Rs 53.82 billion).