India has padded its foreign reserves by 15 percent in 10 months as narrowing deficits lured foreign investment and helped turn the rupee into the world’s best-performing currency. The CHART OF THE DAY shows India’s international reserve assets including gold jumping $41 billion to $316 billion as of July 4, within 2 percent of the record high in September 2011. The premium on offshore forward contracts for buying the dollar against the rupee in three months has narrowed by two-thirds since August, to 0.76 rupees over the onshore spot rate. In the same period the rupee surged 14.4 percent percent, the world’s biggest ... (full story)