India's forex reserves down $643 million

India's foreign exchange reserves declined by $643.3 million to $319.34 billion due to a sharp fall in the currency assets for the week ended Aug 8, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

The reserves had fallen by $573.5 million to $319.99 billion for the week ended Aug 1.

According to the RBI's weekly statistical supplement, foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves, declined by $646.7 million to $292.04 billion for the week under review.

The foreign currency assets had plunged by $1.09 billion to $292.69 billion for the previous week.

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.

However, India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) grew by $0.9 million to $1.70 billion.

The value of special drawing rights (SDRs) too increased by $2.5 million to $4.42 billion.

The value of gold reserves remained static at $21.17 billion. The bullion had increased by $538.9 million at $21.17 billion in the previous week.