India's foreign exchange reserves witnessed a drop of $97 million at $73.821 billion during the week ended March 21.

The foreign currency assets of the country fell by $97 million at $70.092 billion during the period under review, according to RBI's weekly statistical supplement released in Mumbai on Saturday.

According to analysts, the minor fall is attributed to revaluation of non-US currencies, including the euro, against the dollar.

Gold reserves and special drawing rights remained static at $3.725 billion and $4 million respectively, it added.

The loans and advances to the central government continued to have a nil balance but that to state governments recorded a fall of Rs 855 crore (Rs 8.55 billion) at Rs 3,205 crore (Rs 32.05 billion), the apex bank said.

Aggregate deposits of scheduled commercial banks for the fortnight as on March seven grew by Rs 5,738 crore (0.5 per cent) at Rs 12,78,020 crore (Rs 12,780.20 billion).

Bank credit in the period under review rose by Rs 6,359 crore (0.9 per cent) at Rs 7,14,622 crore (Rs 7,146.22 billion).

The food credit decreased by Rs 511 crore (Rs 5.11 billion) at Rs 49,716 crore (Rs 497.16 billion) while non-food credit recorded an increase of Rs 6,870 crore (Rs 68.7 billion) at Rs 6,64,906 crore (Rs 6,649.06 billion) in the fortnight, the RBI added.