THE Economic Survey 2012-13 presented by the Union Finance Minister, Mr
P. Chidambaram, in the Lok Sabha today has stated that the Foreign Exchange
Reserves in the current fiscal, on month-on-month basis remained in the range of
USD 286.0 billion (at end-May 2012) to USD 295.6 billion (at end-December 2012).
By end of December 2012, reserves stood at USD 295.6 billion, indicating
a marginal increase of USD 1.2 billion from USD 294.4 billion in March, 2012. At
this level, reserves provided about seven months of import cover, the Survey
observes.
India's foreign exchange reserves comprise foreign currency
assets (FCA), gold, special drawing rights (SDRs) and reserve tranche position
(RTP) in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The level of foreign exchange
reserves is largely the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervention
in the foreign exchange market to smoothen exchange rate volatility and
valuation changes due to movement of the US dollar against other major
currencies of the world.
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