India’s forex reserves decline for second week

NEW DELHI: India’s foreign exchange reserves declined for the second consecutive week, according to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.
The forex reserves plummeted by $10.746 billion to $690.43 billion for the week that ended on October 11. This follows a drop of $3.709 billion in the previous reporting week, which brought the reserves down to $701.176 billion.Earlier, the forex kitty had reached a record high of $704.885 billion at the end of September.
The data released on Friday revealed that foreign currency assets, which constitute a major portion of the reserves, fell by $10.542 billion to $602.101 billion for the week ended October 11.
Furthermore, the RBI reported that gold reserves decreased by $98 million to $65.658 billion during the week in question. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) also experienced a decline of $86 million, bringing their total to $18.339 billion, according to the apex bank.
Lastly, the data from the RBI showed that India’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decreased by $20 million to $4.333 billion in the reporting week.
Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.