India’s exports of engineering goods to Russia more than doubled to over $1 billion in the first nine months of last year thanks in part to payments settled in rupees, the news outlet Mint reported on Wednesday, citing a top exporting group.
Deliveries of machinery, auto parts, electrical equipment, and other engineering goods to Russia surged by 130% and totaled $1.03 billion in the period between April and December 2023, according to the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC).
Exports of such goods to Russia are expected to reach $1.5 billion by the end of March, said the EEPC, an organization comprising over 12,000 small exporters of engineering goods.
“There is a manifold increase in the export of engineering goods to Russia and demand of our engineering products in other countries is rising,” EEPC Chairman Arun Garodia told the outlet in an interview after the two countries launched a payment mechanism to settle trade in the national currencies.
India and Russia have been working on alternative methods for carrying out transactions after the latter was removed from the SWIFT financial messaging system.
Meanwhile, sanctions have prompted Russia to scrap Western currencies in trade with many of its partners. Thus far, Moscow has signed deals with a number of countries, including China, Iran and India, to trade in local currencies instead of the dollar.
Garodia expects trade in rupees to become more common in the coming years as several countries, including some in Africa, have expressed an interest in establishing payment mechanisms using the Indian currency.
“Exporters are happy that they are receiving payments in rupees for exports to Russia,” he added.
Moscow and New Delhi have maintained close and friendly trade and defense relations for decades.
Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry recently estimated that bilateral trade will exceed the “significant” milestone of $50 billion by the end of this year.
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