The figures disclosed by the weekly statistical supplement released by the Central Bank (RBI) showed that India’s foreign exchange reserves for the week ended May 01 has declined by $1.39 billion to $251.702 billion.

It should be noted that the reserves came up by $631 million to $253.091 billion during the week ended April 24.

The reports said that the recent fall in foreign exchange reserves was mainly due to a revaluation of reserves and a reduction in price of gold assets held by RBI.

During the week, the foreign currency assets witnessed a fall of $1.04 billion to $241.487 billion, mainly on account of the depreciation in Japanese yen.

Foreign currency assets expressed in dollar terms consist of the effect of increase or decrease of non-US currencies.

A dealer with a public sector bank stated, “Two currencies in the reserve — euro and sterling — have appreciated during the week, while yen has depreciated by almost two levels, which shows that a considerable amount of our forex reserve is held in the yen.”

In its weekly statistical supplement, RBI said that Gold reserves during the period under review, descended $346 million to $9.23 billion. 

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remained unaltered at $1 million and $983 million respectively.

During the week ended May 01, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equities worth $402 million.