After touching record high, forex reserves slip to $583.70 bn

The country's foreign exchange reserves fell by $249 million to $583.697 billion in the week ended February 12, RBI data showed on Friday.

In the previous week, the reserves had declined by $6.24 billion to stand at $583.945 billion.

It had touched a record high of $590.185 billion in the week ended January 29, 2021.

In the reporting week, the decrease in reserves was mainly due to a fall in the foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves.

FCAs decreased by $1.387 billion to $540.951 billion, weekly data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) 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.

After falling for two consecutive weeks, the gold reserves rose by $1.26 billion to $36.227 billion in the week ended February 12.

The special drawing rights (SDRs) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose by $10 million to $1.513 billion.

However, the country's reserve position with the IMF declined by $132 million to $5.006 billion in the reporting week, as per the data.

Photograph: Lee Jae-Won/Reuters