Mumbai: India's forex kitty dropped by $8.578 billion to $726.027 billion during the week ended October 9, the RBI said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the reserves had dropped by $12.952 billion to $734.606 billion.
The reserves had touched an all-time high of $785.706 billion for the week ended September 4, driven by a heavy flow of currency as part of a special concessional swap for deposits from the diaspora, through which banks raised a record sum of nearly $133 billion, but have been on a declining trend ever since.
For the week ended October 9, foreign currency assets, a major component of reserves, decreased by $7.142 billion to $597.605 billion, according to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units, such as the euro, pound, and yen, held in foreign exchange reserves.
The value of gold reserves decreased by $1.319 billion to $105.094 billion during the week, the RBI said. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down by $109 million to $18.548 billion, the apex bank said. India's reserve position with the IMF decreased by $10 million to $4.78 billion, the RBI said.