India's foreign exchange reserves continued to rise and grew by $863 million at $73,740 million during the week ended March 7.

The country's foreign currency assets swelled by $863 million at $70,011 million, according to Reserve Bank of India's weekly statistical supplement released in Mumbai on Saturday.

For the week ended February 28, foreign exchange reserves ad decreased by $2,477 million at $72,877 million due to purchases of $3,035 million by the government from RBI for prepayment of foreign currency loans taken from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Gold reserves and special drawing rights remained static at $3,725 million and at $4 million respectively in the reporting week, RBI said.

Loans and advances to Central government continued to have a nil balance but that to state governments rose by Rs 1,917 crore (Rs 19.17 billion) at Rs 6,070 crore (Rs 60.7 billion) for the week ended March seven, the apex bank said.

Aggregate deposits of scheduled commercial banks during the fortnight ended February 28 declined by Rs 1,079 crore (Rs 10.79 billion) at Rs 12,77,640 crore (Rs 12776.4 billion).

Bank credit in the period under review rose by Rs 9,570 crore (Rs 95.7 billion) at Rs 7,13,657 crore (Rs 7136.57 billion).

Food credit decreased by Rs 288 crore (Rs 2.88 billion) at Rs 50,160 crore (Rs 501.6 billion) while non-food credit recorded an increase of Rs 9,858 crore (Rs 98.58 billion) at Rs 6,63,497 crore (Rs 6634. 97 billion) in the fortnight, RBI added.