Mumbai: India's foreign exchange reserves surged further by $ 1,609 million to cross the $ 106 billion mark for the week ended February six.

The country's foreign exchange reserves swelled up by $ 1,609 million to $ 1,06,607 million in the period under review, according to Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) weekly statistical supplement released today (Feb 14, 2004).

The foreign currency assets also saw an increase of $ 1,535 million to touch $ 1,02,315 million, it said.

Forex market sources said the reserves have gone up due to fresh inflows and revaluation of the US dollar vis-a-vis other currencies.

RBI said that gold reserves grew by $ 74 million to touch $ 4,289 million while the special drawing rights remained static at $ three million respectively.

India's Reserve Tranche Position (RTP) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose by $ five million to $ 1,317 million, the Central Bank said adding that the RTP may change from time to time due to India's transactions with the IMF as well as changes in SDR exchange rates vis-a-vis rupee and the dollar.

The loans and advances to Central Government continued with a nil balance while that to State Governments declined by Rs 277 crore at Rs 3,845 crore, the RBI added.

Aggregate deposits of scheduled commercial banks as on January 30 grew by Rs 30,910 crore (2.2 per cent) to Rs 14,50,698 crore.

Bank credit increased by Rs 20,680 crore at Rs 8,01,253crore.

Food credit was down by Rs 188 crore at Rs 35,864 crore while non-food credit increased by Rs 21,168 crore to Rs 7,65,388 crore.