India's forex reserves dip to three-year low.

Kolkata: India's foreign exchange reserves have dipped to $275.5 billion, a 39-month low, as Reserve Bank of India continued to sell dollars to support the battered local currency.

The rupee has come under come under severe pressure and been the worst performing Asian currency since global investors offloaded their investment in emerging economies to maximise return from rising US bond prices after the Federal Reserve withdrew quantitative easing.

The rupee depreciated about 27% since April to its record closing low of 68.80 a dollar on August 28. In comparison, Indonesian rupiah fell about 12% this year while Malaysian Ringgit saw 8% depreciation. Japanese yen fell 11.6% this year.

The rupee has however recovered since August 28 level on strong RBI action and improved sentiment after governor Raghuram Rajan took measures aiming to boost dollar inflows. The rupee closed Friday at 65.25 a dollar, nearly 110 paise higher than Thursday's close.

"The sentiment in the market has definitely improved," a forex dealer with a foreign bank said. RBI under Rajan has subsidised swap cost to attract FCNR-B deposits and enhanced limits for exporters to re-book cancelled forward exchange contracts to attract inflows. Rajan's decision to roll back the amount a company can use to invest overseas to 400% of its networth, from 100%, has also made investors' easy.

The forex reserves dipped $2.2 billion in the week ending August 30 to $275.5 billion. In rupee terms, it gained Rs 450 billion to Rs 18.341 billion due to exchange rate movement.

Foreign currency assets feel $3.080 billion to $247.402 billion, Reserve Bank of India said in its weekly report. Foreign currency assets expressed in dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, pound and yen held in the reserves.

RBI said that the value of country's gold reserve has risen by 977 million to $21,724 billion. India is still a creditor to International Monetary Fund's reserve position although the position fell $113 million to $1.990 billion in the period under review.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com