India’s foreign exchange reserves rise to $328.7 bn: Economic Survey

New Delhi, Feb 27:

India’s foreign exchange reserves have risen to $328.7 billion at the end of January 2015, said the Economic Survey 2014-15 which was tabled in the parliament Friday.

“The financial inflows in excess of the financial requirements has helped shore up foreign exchange reserves,” the survey said.

According to the report card on the state of country’s economy the reserves had risen to $304.2 billion at end-March 2014 as against $292 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

“In the first half of 2014-15, India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $18.1 billion on BoP (balance of payment) basis (excluding valuation effect),” the survey said.

The Economic Survey said that among the major economies with current account deficit (CAD), India had the second largest foreign exchange reserve after Brazil.

“Even though 2013-14 witnessed a sharp depreciation of the rupee in the initial part of the year with significant reserve drawdown, steps taken by the government and the RBI resulted in a rise in the stock of foreign exchange reserves,” the survey said. IANS