Total foreign exchange reserves in India fell by $571 million to $563.499 billion in the week ended December 16 after five straight weeks of gains, data from the Reserve Bank of India showed on Friday.

In last week’s report, total reserves rose $2.91 billion to $564.06 billion, the fifth straight weekly increase after a prolonged decline.

In October 2021, the country’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high of $645 billion. Reserves have been falling as the central bank deploys reserves to defend the rupee under pressure primarily caused by global developments.

Foreign exchange assets (FCA), the main component of total reserves, fell by $500 million to $499.624 billion in the week ended December 16, according to a weekly statistical supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

FCA includes the impact of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units such as euro, pound, and yen expressed in US dollars in foreign exchange reserves.

Gold reserves fell by $150 million to $40.579 billion. Special Drawing Rights (SDR) increased by $75 million to $18,181 million.

The data showed that the country’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also increased by $4 million to $5.114 billion in the week of the report.