The extent to which Indian and Chinese banks are cutting their exposure to the ailing US dollar was revealed yesterday in data from the Bank for International Settlements.

The Asian central and commercial banks covered in the BIS data held only 67 per cent of their deposits in dollars as of September 2004, down from 81 per cent in the third quarter of 2001, said the Basel-based bank. The data indicate the shift out of the dollar was most evident in India, where dollar holdings fell from 68 per cent to 43 per cent during the three-year period. Chinese banks have reduced their dollar share from 83 per cent to 68 per cent - mostly before the third quarter of 2002.