India's forex kitty drops $10.75 bn to $690.43 bn

Declining for the second straight week, India's forex reserves dropped $10.75 billion to $690.43 billion for the week ended October 11 in one of the largest decreases in the kitty in recent times, the RBI said on Friday.

In the previous reporting week, the reserves had dropped by $3.71 billion to $701.18 billion.

At the end of September, the reserves had hit an all-time high of $704.88 billion.

For the week ended October 11, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, decreased by $10.54 billion to $602.10 billion, the data released on Friday showed.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

Gold reserves decreased by $98 million to $65.66 billion during the week, the RBI said.

The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down by $86 million to $18.339 billion, the apex bank said.

India's reserve position with the IMF was down by $20 million to $4.33 billion in the reporting week, the apex bank data showed.