India's forex reserves down $573.5 mn

India's foreign exchange reserves declined by $573.5 million to $319.99 billion due to a sharp fall in the currency assets for the week ended Aug 1, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

The reserves had increased by $2.71 billion to $320.56 billion on the back of a sharp rise in the currency assets for the week ended July 25.

According to the RBI's weekly statistical supplement, foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves, fell by $1.09 billion to $292.69 billion for the week under review.

The foreign currency assets had gained by $163 million to $291.05 billion for the week ended July 25 2014.

The RBI said that the foreign currency assets, expressed in US dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies held in reserve such as the pound sterling, euro and yen.

India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declined by $5.9 million to $1.70 billion.

The value of special drawing rights (SDRs) too fell by $15.5 million to $4.42 billion.

However, the value of gold reserves increased by $538.9 million at $21.17 billion. The gold reserves had declined by $155.5 million in value at $20.63 billion in the week ended July 4 till July 25.