Mumbai: The country's foreign exchange reserves surged by $ 685 million to touch $ 108.36 billion following fresh inflows and revaluation of the US currency vis-a-vis other currencies for the week ended February 27.

The foreign exchange reserves stood at $ 1,08,360 million following inflows of $ 685 million, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) weekly statistical bulletin released today (Mar 6, 2004).

The foreign currency assets also saw a similar increase of $ 685 million to touch $ 1,04,069 million, it said.

Gold reserves and special drawing rights during this period remained static at $ 4,289 million and $ two million respectively.

India's Reserve Tranche Position (RTP) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declined by $ 13 million to $ 1,311 million, the Central Bank said adding, 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-à-vis rupee and the dollar.

The loans and advances to Central Government continued with a nil balance while that to State Governments were down by Rs 2,778 crore at Rs 4,220 crore, the RBI added.

Aggregate deposits of scheduled commercial banks as on February 20 grew by Rs 15,947 crore (1.1 per cent) to Rs 14,69,752 crore, the RBI said.

Bank credit increased by Rs 4,786 crore at Rs 8,10,965 crore.

Food credit was down by Rs 1,200 crore at Rs 35,268 crore while non-food credit increased by Rs 5,986 crore to Rs 7,75,697 crore, the apex bank added.