India’s foreign exchange reserves have surged by a massive 8.22 billion dollars to cross the half-a-trillion mark for the first time. The reserves rose to 501.70 billion dollars for the week ended 5th of June, helped by a whopping rise in foreign currency assets. A RBI press release informed that foreign currency assets, a major part of the overall reserves, rose by 8.42 billion dollars to 463.63 billion dollars.

In the previous week, the reserves had advanced by 3.44 billion dollars to end at 493.48 billion dollars. Total value of the gold reserves, however, continued to decline. Gold reserves declined by 329 million dollars to end at 32.352 billion dollars. India’s special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund went up by 10 million dollars to 1.44 billion dollars, while the country’s reserve position also rose by 120 million dollars to 4.28 billion dollars.