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Expressing optimism over bilateral trade in the rupee, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said many countries have evinced interest for bilateral trade in the rupee after the RBI announced a mechanism recently. She said this along with other steps taken by the government is towards full capital account convertibility. On India is ready for capital account convertibility, she said ‘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’.

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. She said ‘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’.

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 Ukrain