New Delhi, Nov 21: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has no target for the country’s build-up of foreign exchange reserves, a senior central bank official said on Thursday. India ’s foreign exchange reserves are now at a record high of more than $93 bn, having grown nearly 32% in ‘03. “The reserves are coming because you are trying to see that huge inflows do not lead to excessive appreciation or a huge amount of volatility,” Usha Thorat, executive director at the Reserve Bank of India, told an industry seminar on ‘Managing foreign exchange risks.’

“There is no limit,” she replied, when asked whether there was a limit to the country’s build-up of reserves. Thorat also said that the rupee had emerged as a strong currency amid the robust foreign exchange inflows into Asia ’s third largest economy.
“Certainly, it is a rupee which is very strong...very confident...very mature and probably able to stand on its own with any other currency in the world,” she said. The rupee is up a little more than 5% against the dollar in ‘03. It rose 0.6% in ‘02, its first annual gain in a decade. It has risen on the back of strong foreign capital investment in an economy expected to grow over 7% in the fiscal to March ‘04. Bureau Report