India, Russia mulling return to rupee-rouble trade

Indo-Russian trade till the demise of the Soviet Union was based on rupee-rouble transactions, which had resulted in India emerging as the biggest trade partner of the former USSR in the developing world with two-way trade to the tune of USD 5 billion in 1991.
"The Central Banks of the two countries have agreed to hold consultations to study the possibility of using national currencies transactions in foreign economic operations between Russia and India," Bank of Russia said in a release.

According to the Bank of Russia (Central bank), both sides discussed the issue at the 15th session of Indo-Russian working group on banking and financial matters in Hyderabad earlier this month.

Russia, which has made its rouble a fully-convertible currency since July, 2008, is keen to add it into the basket of global reserve currencies on the backdrop of sliding value of the US greenback.
Earlier this week, the 15th session of Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC), co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Russian Vice-premier Sergei Sobyanin, said the commerce secretary-level Joint Task Force (JTF) should monitor implementation of its recommendations to promote bilateral trade, investment and economic cooperation.
The current bilateral trade is hovering around USD 7 billion. New Delhi and Moscow have set to boost it to USD 20 billion in 2015.