Mumbai: India's foreign exchange reserves decreased by $ 2,477 million at $ 72,877 million in the week ended February 28 due to purchases of $ 3,035 million by the government from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for prepayment of foreign currency loans taken from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank.

The foreign currency assets of the country fell by $ 2,514 million at $ 69,148 million during the period under review, according to RBI's weekly statistical supplement released on March 8.

Gold reserves, however, increased by $ 37 million to $ 3,725 million while special drawing rights remained static at $ 4 million, it added.

The loans and advances to Central government continued to have a nil balance but that to state governments recorded a fall of Rs 1,589 crore at Rs 4,153 crore for the week ended February 28, the apex bank said.

Aggregate deposits of scheduled commercial banks during the fortnight ended February 21 declined by Rs 562 crore at Rs 12,72,282 crore.

Bank credit in the period under review rose by Rs 4,405 crore at Rs 7,08,263 crore.

RBI said food credit decreased by Rs 205 crore at Rs 50,227 crore while non-food credit recorded an increase of Rs 4,610 crore at Rs 6,58,036 crore in the fortnight.

PTI