New Delhi: The president of India’s exporter group, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), A Shaktivel on Wednesday said, “India will soon start settling trade with Russia in rupees as the State Bank of India has agreed to facilitate the process,”
The trade body’s president’s remarks come a couple of months after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a mechanism to settle payments for international trade in rupees, especially for India’s exports.
“The exporters are very much encouraged by the RBI Notification allowing exports-imports in Indian Rupee. This will help us to increase our exports to countries facing acute foreign exchange shortages or those covered by sanctions,” the trade body said in a statement.
India’s exports to Russia during the first four months of this financial year fell by about a third while imports continued to rise, especially on account of ramping up of inbound crude oil shipments.
According to an estimate, there is a steep jump in Russian oil export to India, as it has increased ten times this year and Russian crude oil is now fulfilling almost ten percent of India’s imported oil consumption.
SBI Research says, Coming to the share of the US dollar in global foreign exchange reserves, has been shrinking since the start of the twenty-first century, falling close to 59 percent as of the end of December 2021, from above 70 percent two decades back.
(Vinayak)