Continuing its effort to mark its arrival on the global stage, India will provide Rs 112.946 billion to the International Monetary Fund’s New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) facility. Government on Friday sought Parliamentary approval towards this end.

Last year also India provided over $2 billion to the IMF’s fund to help bailouts in Europe and other parts of the world. As part of efforts to overcome the global financial crisis , in April 2009, the Group of Twenty (G-20 ) industrialized and emerging market economies agreed to increase the resources available to the IMF by up to $500 billion (which would triple the total pre-crisis lending resources of about $250 billion) to support growth in emerging market and developing countries, according to IMF.

IMF said this broad goal was endorsed by the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) in its April 25, 2009 communique . The increase was made in two steps: First, through bilateral financing from IMF member countries ; Second, by incorporating this financing into an expanded and more flexible NAB. On September 25, 2009 the G-20 announced it had delivered on its promise to contribute over $500 billion to a renewed and expanded NAB, according to the IMF website.

Currently, the fund has sixteen active bilateral loan agreements worth about $200 billion and two active bilateral note purchase agreements for about $60 billion.

—The Economic Times

Forex reserve down

Mumbai: The foreign exchange reserves of the country fell by USD 471.3 million to USD 294.51 billion for the week ending November 30 due to slide in gold reserves and core currency assets, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.

The overall reserves had increased by USD 1.45 billion to USD 294.98 billion in the previous reporting week. For the week ended November 30, the gold reserves slid by USD 386.2 million to USD 27.80 billion, the RBI said.

Similarly, the core foreign currency assets, a major part of the reserves, also dropped by USD 125.7 million to USD 260.01 billion, the central bank said in its weekly statistical supplement. Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of the non-US currencies, such as the euro, pound and yen, held in the reserves, the apex bank said.

For the week under review, the special drawing rights (SDRs) were up by USD 26.9 million to USD 4.430 billion, while the country’s reserve position with the IMF was up USD 13.7 million to USD 2.264 billion, the RBI data showed.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/9th-Dec-12