Forex Turnover Touches $34 b Mark In April 2007

The country''s total foreign exchange turnover went up from $ 2 billion in April 1998 to $ 34 billion in April 2007 owing to strong economic growth and liberalisation of banking and foreign exchange norms. According to data released by the Bank for International Settlement, India''s share in foreign exchange market has increased from 0.1 per cent in 1998 to 0.9 per cent in 2007.

The data includes details of spot trades, outright forwards, forex swaps and cross currency trading. All of these have shown substantial increase in volumes said, Mr Sudhir Joshi, treasurer, HDFC Bank. The bigger share of the forex turnover is with foreign banks, followed by Indian private banks, said bank officials. This is because the foreign banks get flows from their overseas offices. Private Indian banks have better marketing of products, said Mr Joshi. Among the public sector banks, those that have flows from the RBI would benefit more than others.