Forex reserves slip for 5th consecutive week, to $311.42 billion

Continuing its downward trend for the fifth consecutive week, the foreign exchange reserves plunged $2.754 billion to $311.427 billion in the week to October 3, led by a major fall in non-US currency assets, according to data released by the  Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.

In the week to September 26, reserves went down by $1.415 billion to $314.181 billion. In the week to July 25, 2014, the reserves had touched $320.56 billion, just short of the life-time high of $320.79 billion on Setpember 2, 2011.

In the reporting week, foreign currency assets, a major constituent of overall reserves, decreased $1.803 billion to $285.588 billion, RBI said.

Foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation and depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen held in reserves.

After remaining unchanged for a couple of weeks, the country's gold reserves dropped by $919.7 million to $20.013 billion.

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down $22.8 million to $4.284 billion, while the country's reserve position with the  International Monetary Fund (IMF) dipped by $8.2 million to $1.540 billion during the week, the RBI data showed.