‘Many countries interested in bilateral rupee trade’
   Date :14-Sep-2022

rupee trade
 
 
NEW DELHI :
 
FINANCE Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said many countries have evinced interest for bilateral trade in the rupee after the RBI announced a mechanism recently. Speaking at Mindmine Summit 2022, she said this along with other steps taken by the Government is towards full capital account convertibility. “It isn’t the rouble-rupee which was in the old format. Now this (bilateral rupee trade) formulation, which I am glad the RBI has come up at a time which was so critical,” she said when asked if India is ready for capital account convertibility.
 
Highlighting that many countries have evinced interest in trade in the rupee, she said, in a way it is opening the Indian economy more than what can be imagined. It is to be noted that the RBI in July issued a detailed circular asking banks to put in place additional arrangements for export and import transactions in the rupee in view of increasing interest of the global trading community in the domestic currency. The announcement by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow cross-border trade transactions in the rupee is a timely move and a step towards internationalisation of the currency. Currently, a large part of bilateral trade between India and Russia is getting settled in the rupee due to sanctions imposed by the US and Europe following Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.
 
The RBI had said that for settlement of trade transactions, banks concerned will require special rupee vostro accounts of correspondent banks of the partner trading country. Nirmala compares India Inc to ‘Hanuman’: FINANCE Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday sought to know from industry what is holding it back from investing in manufacturing, even though foreign investors show confidence in India.