Foreign exchange continues to shrink, declines by close to $3 billion again

Mumbai: Continuing its declining trend, the foreign exchange reserves declined by $2.889 billion to $349.037 billion in the week through September 4 due to the continuing fall in foreign currency assets.

In the previous reporting week, the reserves had fallen sharply by $3.433 billion to $351.920 billion.

In the last two reporting weeks, the reserves had come down by a whopping $6.322 billion.

Reserves had touched an all-time high of $355.46 billion in the week to June 19.

Foreign currency assets, which are a major component of the overall reserves, were down by $2.650 billion to $325.656 billion in the week, according to the latest Reserve Bank data.

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

After remaining unchanged for many weeks, the gold reserves slightly declined by $214.8 million to $18.035 billion.

The country’s special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund fell by $18.6 million to touch $4.049 billion in the week under review, while the nation’s reserve position with the Fund declined by $5.9 million to $1.289 billion, the apex bank said.

PTI