India's forex reserves up at $278.6 billion

The country's foreign exchange reserves rose by $1.434 billion in the week ended August 9, after dropping by $2.99 billion previous week, the Reserve Bank of India said.

Total reserves rose to $278.601 billion as against $277.167 billion in the week ended August 2.

Foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the forex reserves, also increased by $1.453 billion to $251.349 billion in the week, according to the RBI. In the week ended August 2, FCA dropped $2.155 billion to $249.895 billion.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies, such as the Euro, Pound and Yen, held in the reserves.

During the week, the gold reserves remained unchanged at $20.747 billion, the central bank said.

For the week under review, the special drawing rights (SDRs) were up by $45.4 million to $4.398.2 billion, while the country's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fell by $64.7 million to $2.107 billion, the RBI data showed.