Mumbai, Jul 7 (IANS): India's foreign exchange reserves (forex) grew by $1.36 billion to $289.992 billion for the week ended June 29, data from India's central bank showed.

Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves kitty, grew by $1.17 billion to $256.95 billion for the week under review, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) weekly statistical supplement said.

The RBI did not provide any reasons for the growth. It said the assets in US dollar terms included the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as pound sterling, euro and yen held in reserve.

The reserves had plunged by $0.76 billion to $288.62 billion for the week ended June 22, apparently due to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) selling dollars to curb the slide in the rupee value.

The rupee has weakened sharply in the last two months owing to ultra high current accounts deficit.

This follows increased demands from oil importers and outflow of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) funds, as poor gross domestic product (GDP) growth data dampened sentiment in the Indian markets.

The forex recovered in the week ended June 15 when it grew by $2 billion to $289.39 billion, and in the week ended June 8 when it recovered by $1.52 billion to $287.37 billion after falling for five straight weeks.

The value of gold reserves increased by $0.17 billion during the week under review at $25.76 billion.

The value declined in the week ended June 1 by $1.03 billion to $25.58 billion and since remained the same till week ended June 22.

The value of special drawing rights (SDRs) increased by $8.4 million to $4.37 billion and India's reserves with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose by $5.6 million to $2.89 billion.