Each foreign tourist gives India Rs 1.76 lakh in foreign exchange India has seen a steady rise in foreign tourists in the last decade and a half. What’s better? Foreign exchange earned through tourism has steadily increased and the rise has been substantially faster than tourist arrivals. MUMBAI: The forex reserves touched a fresh life-time high of $375.71 billion after rising by $2.985 billion in the week ending May 5, helped by increase in foreign currency assets , the Reserve Bank said.The reserves had risen by $1.594 billion to $372.73 billion in the previous week.Foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves, rose by $2.474 billion to $351.53 billion in the reporting week, the RBI said.Expressed in US dollar terms, FCAs include the effects of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies, such as the euro, pound and the yen, held in the reserves.After remaining stable for past few weeks, gold reserves rose by $569.9 million to $20.438 billion, the central bank said.The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund decreased marginally by $0.4 million to $1.459 billion.The country's reserve position with the Fund, too, declined by $58.4 million to $2.288 billion, the RBI said.

Source: Times of India May 12, 2017 12:22 UTC