Billions of Indian rupees lie stagnant in Russia: Moscow
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Goa: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that his country had accumulated billions of Indian rupees in Indian banks, which it cannot use. He was pointing out that the trade surplus with India is ballooning, Bloomberg reported.
Speaking at the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, Lavrov said that it was a problem and Russia needed to convert it to another currency so that they could use it.
In the financial year of 2022-23, Indian exports to Russia reduced by 11.6% to $2.8 billion in the first 11 months. Also, imports rose five folds to $41.56 billion. The imports increased after refineries took in discounted Russian oil exponentially last year after the West imposed oil sanctions on Russia as a response to its invasion of Ukraine.
In April, imports of Russian crude to India rose to a record 1.68 million barrels a day, which was six times more than the previous year.
Initially, Russia encouraged India to trade in national currencies after sanctions were imposed on Russian banks and a ban on transactions using the SWIFT messaging system. But the volatility of the Ruble after the war began led to the abandonment of the rupee-ruble mechanism for oil imports.
Bloomberg reports that Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina said in April that currency restrictions will make Russian exporters face difficulty in repatriating rupees.