The Reserve Bank of India invested nearly half of the country?s foreign exchange reserves in sovereign securities and around 10% in gold as on March 31, the central bank said.
In a release on Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India said around $5.5 billion of forex assets were kept as deposits at various commercial banks overseas.
RBI held 557.75 tonnes of gold (around 9.2% of forex reserves), out of which 265.49 tonnes were kept as deposits in Bank of England and Bank of International Settlements, the central bank said.
The rate of earnings on foreign currency assets and gold decreased from 2.09% in July 2009-June 2010 to 1.74% in July 2010-June 2011 reflecting the generally low global interest rate environment,? RBI said. The central bank follows a July-June financial year.
The central bank?s investment of forex reserves is driven by the objective of safety, liquidity and the gola of maximising returns is embedded in these objectives, RBI said.