Mexico's foreign reserves fell last week by 781 million U.S. dollars, the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) said Tuesday.

Total reserves were down to 176.6 billion dollars in the week ending Aug. 5.

The drop was in part due to the government's purchase of 571 million dollars from the central bank, said Banxico.

Changes in currency exchange rates accounted for another 210-million-dollar reduction in the bank's reserves.

The monetary base, namely notes, coins and commercial bank deposits with the central bank, dipped by 2.8 billion pesos (around 150 million dollars) to just over 1.3 trillion pesos (around 67.9 billion dollars), but representing an increase of 8.6 billion pesos (around 468 million dollars) so far this year.

According to Banxico, the fluctuations are in keeping with seasonal patterns of monetary base demand.

Source : XINHUA