India's foreign exchange reserves shot up for a third week in a row, adding 1.9 billion US dollars to touch 281.12 billion US dollars in the week to 18 October, on account of growth in a key component. In the previous reporting week, the reserves had increased by 1.51 billion US dollars to 279.24 billion US dollars. The Reserve Bank said that Foreign currency assets, FCAs, which form the largest chunk of the reserves, jumped 1.8 billion US dollars to 252.7 billion USD in the week under review.

FCAs, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen, held in the reserves.

The gold reserves remained unchanged at 21.765 billion US dollars in the week under review, while the special drawing rights increased by 25.6 million US dollars to 4.46 billion US dollars. The RBI data showed that India's reserve position with the IMF rose by 12.7 million US dollars to 2.205 billion US dollars.