India's forex reserves decline by $1.88 billion to $623.983 billion

Mumbai: India's forex reserves dropped by $1.88 billion to $623.983 billion in the week ended January 17, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday.

Earlier, the overall kitty declined by $8.714 billion to $625.871 billion in the week ended January 10, the RBI said.

The reserves have been on a declining trend for the last few weeks, and the drop has been attributed to revaluation along with forex market interventions by RBI to help reduce volatilities in the rupee.

The forex reserves had increased to an all-time high of $704.885 billion in end-September.

For the week ended January 17, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, decreased by $2.878 billion to $533.133 billion, the data released on Friday showed.

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.

Gold reserves increased by $1.063 million to $68.947 billion during the week, the RBI said.

India's reserve position with the IMF was down by $74 million at $4.122 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.