FM Nirmala Sitharaman: INR-led bilateral trade gaining traction

New Delhi: Union 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 Hero Mindmine Summit, she said this along with other steps taken by the government is towards full capital account convertibility. "It isn't the Ruble-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 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.