RBI looks to up rupee’s role in cross-border trade

MUMBAI: To strengthen the rupee’s global footprint, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday rolled out measures to facilitate trade and investment in the Indian currency.

- Subhana Shaikh

The RBI plans to introduce reference rates for currencies of India’s biggest trading partners, allow Indian banks to lend in rupees to neighbouring countries and offer foreign partners more investment options for Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA) balances.

The announcements came alongside the central bank's monetary policy statement. As widely expected, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 5.50% for the second straight meeting and maintained a neutral stance.

The rupee rose 0.1% to 88.7075 a dollar on Wednesday. It had touched a record low of 88.8050 on Tuesday.