Saturday, March 26 2005 17:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: India's foreign exchange reserves continued to surge ahead and grew by $ 1.7 billion to cross $ 142 billion mark for the week ended March 18 due to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) intervention in the market.

The country's foreign exchange reserves rose by $ 1701 million to touch $ 1,42,130 million, according to RBI's weekly statistical supplement released in Mumbai today (March 26, 2005).

The foreign currency assets went up by $ 1707 million to reach at $ 1,36,291 million for the reporting week.

Gold reserves and SDRs remained static at $ 4,376 million and $ 5 million respectively, it added.

The country's reserve tranche position in the IMF declined by $ six million to $ 1,458 million.

The inflows were mainly due to ongoing intervention by the central bank in the forex market, FII inward investments and revaluation of foreign currencies, analysts said.

Loans and advances to the State Government declined by Rs 251 crore to Rs 788 crore while that to the Central Government showed a nil balance.