Mumbai, Dec 17 (IANS): India's foreign exchange reserves declined by $69 million to $306.77 billion for the week ended Dec 9, registering loss for the fifth time in the last six weeks under review, official data showed.

The forex reserves kitty had risen by $2.28 billion during the week ended Dec 2 after dropping by over $16 billion in the previous four weeks.

Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves, dropped by $56 million to $271.63 billion for the week ended Dec 9, according to the weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The RBI does not provide any reason for the change in the foreign currency assets.

It says the 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.

India's reserves with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dropped by $5 million to $2.60 billion and the value of special drawing rights (SDRs) fell by $8 million to $4.49 billion.

However, the value of gold reserves remained unchanged $28.04 billion.