Mumbai, May 11 - After expanding for three consecutive weeks, the country's foreign exchange reserves dwindled by USD 2.19 billion to USD 293.17 billion due to a fall in the core foreign currency assets and gold reserves.

The reserves had registered an addition of USD 758 million to USD 295.36 billion in the previous reporting week.

Foreign currency assets, a major component of the forex reserves, dropped by USD 1.77 billion to USD 259.19 billion for the week ended May 4, the Reserve Bank said in data released today.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies, such as the euro, pound and yen, held in the reserves, the apex bank said.

After being unchanged for many weeks, gold reserves fell by USD 405.2 million to USD 26.61 billion, the apex bank said.

For the week under review, the special drawing rights (SDRs) were down by USD 10 million to USD 4.460 billion, while the country's reserve position with the IMF also fell by USD 6.6 million to USD 2.906 billion, the apex bank data showed. PTI