The RBI, on April 1, announced a Rs 1,000 crore cut in both the first and second-half limits for WMA to the centre for fiscal 1998-99. It also jacked up the interest rate on WMA by a hefty margin by linking it to the bank rate instead of the 91-day treasury bill yield. This works out to a 6 percentage point jump in WMA cost to the Centre.

Under the new arrangements announced by RBI, the WMA limit for the first half of 1998-99 has been fixed at Rs 11,000 crore -- Rs 1,000 crore lower than the figure in the previous corresponding period. For the second half of the year, the limit has been cut by an identical margin -- from Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore.

The country's foreign exchange reserves, witnessing a steady climb over the past few weeks, has grown by$509 million for the week ended March 20, 1998. Total foreign currency reserves now stand at $28.78 billion while forex assets are at $25.37 billion.

Money supply for the fortnight ended March 13, 1998, rose to 16.7 per cent from 16 per cent on February 27, the central bank said in its weekly statistical supplement.

Money supply was at Rs 7,98,111 crore on March 13, 1998, up from Rs 7,89,296 crore on February 27, 1998.