India's foreign exchange reserves drop by $144 million to $284 billion

India's foreign exchange reserves declined by $144 million to $283.499 billion during the week ended 25 December 2009, mainly on account of decline in foreign currency assets, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its weekly statistical supplement released today.

During the period, foreign currency assets, excluding $250 million invested in foreign currency denominated bonds issued by IIFC (UK), decreased by $132 million to $258.719 billion.

During the same period, the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decreased by $3 million to $1.426 billion. However, gold reserves remained flat at $18.182 billion, while the special drawing rights was down $9 million to $5.172 billion from $5.181 billion in the previous week, the central bank said.

Meanwhile China's foreign-exchange reserves topped $2 trillion for the first time as the nation's economic recovery prompted overseas investors to pump money into stocks and property.

The reserves rose a record $178 billion in the second quarter to $2.132 trillion, the People's Bank of China said today on its web site. That dwarfs a $7.7 billion gain in the previous three months.