Out of the total foreign currency assets of $191.9 billion, $53.0 billion was invested in securities, $92.2 billion was deposited with other central banks, Bank for International Settlement (BIS) & International Monetary Fund(MF) and $ 46.8 billion was in the form of deposits with foreign commercial banks as on March-end this year. This is the highlight of the half yearly report on foreign exchange reserves which was released by the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday. The return on foreign currency assets and gold, after accounting for depreciation, increased to 3.9 % during the year 2005-06 (July-June) from 3.1 % in 2004-05, mainly because of hardening of global short-term interest rates.
International Monetary Fund had designated India as a creditor under its Financial Transaction Plan (FTP) in February 2003, in terms of which India participated in the IMF?s financial support to may countries.The total quantum of India?s contribution under FTP by way of purchase was $493 million at end-June 2005. There were no purchase transactions after June 2005. India was included in repurchase transactions of the FTP since November 2005. There have been niner repurchase transactions during the period from November 2005 to April 2007 totaling $ 677 million received from 5 countries, which include Turkey, Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia and Uruguay. The ratio of short-term debt to foreign exchange reserves increased moderately to 36.9 % as at end-March 2005 and further to 43.4 % as at end-March 2006 and decreased to 38.2 % as at end March 2007. India received FDI of $17.7 billion in the 2006/07 fiscal year that ended on March 31, up sharply from $7.7 billion a year earlier, RBI said on Thursday.
