Many countries keen on bilateral rupee trade: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi, September 13

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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.

“Post-pandemic, India is coming up with so many out-of-the-box solutions…I would like to highlight the fact that we are a lot more open with the Indian economy, a lot more open in the way we are talking to countries, we are willing to have our digital platform become interoperable between countries to enable cross-border transactions,” she said.

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 RBI to allow cross-border trade transactions in the rupee is a timely move and a step towards internationalisation of the currency. — PTI

Rupee rises 36 p to close at 79.17 vs USD

• The rupee appreciated by 36 paise to close at 79.17 against the US dollar on Tuesday
• At the forex market, the local unit opened at 79.30 against the greenback. It witnessed an intra-day high of 79.03 and a low of 79.33 during the session
• It finally ended at 79.17, up 36 paise from its previous close of 79.53