For the second time within a month, India's foreign exchange reserves soared by over $ 1 billion to cross a record high level of $72 billion in the week ended January 17.

The country's foreign exchange reserves spurted by $1.053 billion at $72.4 billion in the period under review, according to Reserve Bank of India's weekly statistical supplement released in Mumbai on Saturday.

For the week ended December 28, the forex reserves had swelled by $1.073 billion.

The recent rise is mainly due to prevailing higher interest rate in the country, heavy FDI inflows, NRI investments and the appreciating rupee.

RBI said foreign currency assets for the week ended January 17 rose substantially by $1.053 billion to $68.949 billion.

Gold reserves and special drawing rights remained static at $3.444 billion and $7 million respectively.

Loans to state governments reduced by Rs 497 crore (Rs 4.97 billion) to Rs 6,684 crore (Rs 66.84 billion) while that to the Centre maintained a nil balance.

Aggregate deposits during the fortnight ending January 10 rose by Rs 3,011 crore (0.2 per cent) taking the total to Rs 12,62,138 crore (Rs 12, 621.38 billion) while bank credit was up by Rs 2,706 crore (0.4 per cent) to Rs 6,91,640 crore (Rs 6, 916.4 billion), it said.

Food credit declined by Rs 1,805 crore (Rs 18.05 billion) to Rs 50,142 crore (Rs 501.41 billion) while non-credit increased by Rs 4,510 crore (Rs 45.1 billion) to Rs 6,41,498 crore (Rs 6,414.98 billion), the RBI said.