Mumbai: India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves went down by $502 million (Dh1.83 billion) to $293.97 billion for the week ended September 21, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data show.

The reserves had risen by $2.43 billion to $294.47 billion for the week ended September 14 2012, and subsequently grown by $1.58 billion to $292 billion for the previous week.

Foreign currency assets (FCA), the biggest component of the forex reserves in the week under review grew $48 million to $261.03 billion according to the weekly statistical supplement released by the RBI.

The FCA had risen by $2.33 billion to $261.51 billion last week.

The RBI in a statement said that FCA in US dollar terms included the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies held in reserve, such as the pound sterling, euro and yen.

However, the value of gold reserves remained stagnant at $26.23 billion. Both the special drawing rights (SDRs) and reserves with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declined in the week under review.

The SDRs increased by $11.2 million to $4.46 billion during the week ended September 21, 2012, while India’s reserves with the IMF grew by $5.6 million to $2.24 billion.