(21 July 2023 – India) India has ratified an agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) allowing the country to settle trade in Indian Rupees (INR) instead of US Dollars (USD).
The move supports India's push to slash transaction costs by eliminating dollar conversions. As the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a framework for settling global trade in INR in 2022.
The countries also agreed to launch a real-time payment link to facilitate streamlined cross-border payments.
“The two agreements will enable seamless cross-border transactions and payments, and foster greater economic cooperation. This arrangement would also promote investments and remittances between the two countries. Use of local currencies would optimise transaction costs and settlement time for transactions, including for remittances from Indians residing in UAE” the RBI stated.
“For the first time, we have achieved $85 billion in trade and soon we will achieve the target of $100 billion. If we decide, we can cross this milestone before the G20” Prime Minister Narendra Modi commented.