Foreign exchange reserves dipped $1.9 billion as on November 6, from a week ago, to $351.73 billion, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India.
Foreign currency assets (FCA), which form a key component of the reserves, dipped $2.4 billion from the previous week to $327.73 billion.
FCA are maintained in major currencies like US dollar, euro, pound sterling and Japanese yen. However, the foreign exchange reserves are denominated and expressed in US dollar only.
The movements in the FCA occur mainly on account of purchase and sale of foreign exchange by the RBI in the foreign exchange market in India, income arising out of the deployment of the foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts of the central government and revaluation of the assets.
During the previous week, the reserves had seen a rise by $2.09 billion to $353.63 billion.
The figure had touched a life-time high of $355.46 billion for the week ended June 19.
Gold reserves, however, rose $540 million to $18.69 billion, thereby offsetting the fall caused by the dip in FCA.
Special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund fell by $27.50 million from last week to $4.008 billion.
Special drawing right (SDR) is an international reserve asset created by the IMF and is allocated to its members in proportion of the members’ quota at the International Monetary Fund.
The country’s reserve position in the IMF stood at $1.299 billion, down $8.9 million from the previous week.