Mumbai, Aug 13 (IANS): India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves declined by $1.86 billion to $317.22 billion for the week ended Aug 5 after surging to an all-time high of $319.08 billion in the previous week, official data showed.

The forex reserves had risen sharply during the recent weeks due to valuation gains in gold and non-US currency reserves, especially euro.

The foreign exchange kitty has declined for the fist time in the last three weeks under review due to a sharp drop in the value of foreign currency assets.

Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves kitty, dropped by $1.84 billion to $284.31 billion during the week ended Aug 5, according to the weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the pound sterling, euro and yen held in reserve.

The value of special drawing rights (SDRs) dropped by $14 million to $4.59 billion and reserves with the International Monetary Fund fell by $9 million to $2.96 billion.

The value of gold reserves remained unchanged at $25.34 billion. Gold reserves had risen to an all-time high during the previous week due to valuation gain.