New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India on Friday released a data which showed that India’s foreign exchange reserve declined by $160 million to $635.66 due to a sharp decline in foreign currency assets, reported ANI. During the week that ended on December 17, 2021, the foreign currency assets dipped by $645 million to $572.21 billion, as per the RBI’s weekly statistical supplement. 


The value of the gold reserve rose by $475 million and was at $39.18 billion. Reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also increased by $9 million to $5.17 billion. The Special Drawing Rights (SDR) remained unchanged at $19.08 billion. 


The country’s forex reserves have declined for the third consecutive week. The forex reserves had dropped by $77 million during the week ended December 10. India’s forex reserves had touched an all-time high of $642 billion in the week ended September 3, 2021.


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The FCA in the same week had risen by $8.213 billion to $579.813 billion. Gold reserves had also gone up by $642 million to $38.083 billion in the reporting week as per the data released back then.


Forex reserves are external assets in the form of gold, SDRs (special drawing rights of the IMF) and foreign currency assets (capital inflows to the capital markets, FDI and external commercial borrowings) accumulated by India and controlled by the Reserve Bank of India. 


The foreign currency assets are expressed in US Dollars and include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies like euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.