India and the United Arab Emirates have begun bilateral trade in their local currencies, with India’s largest refiner paying in rupees to buy one million barrels of oil from the United Arab Emirates, the Indian government said.

Indian Embassy in UAE said in a statement that Indian Oil Corporation paid Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in Rs.

The move comes after a deal involving the sale of 25 kilograms of gold from an Emirati gold source to a buyer in India for about 128.4 million rupees ($1.54 million).

This is the first time that India is buying oil from the UAE in rupees instead of dollars.

In July, India signed an agreement with the UAE to encourage India’s efforts to reduce transaction costs by eliminating dollar exchange and allowing trade in rupees instead of dollars.

During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United Arab Emirates, the two countries agreed to set up a real-time payment connectivity system to facilitate cross-border money transfers.

Bilateral trade volume between India and UAE is expected to reach $84.5 billion between 2022 and 2023.

India is keen to strike similar deals in local currencies with other countries to boost exports as global trade slows.

The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the Republic of India and the United Arab Emirates has played an important role in consolidating joint economic and trade relations between the two countries, pushing them towards growth and prosperity, and creating opportunities and incentives for Emiratis and Indians. Business communities.

Foreign trade between the two countries last year saw re-exports at 48.4 billion dirhams and non-oil exports at 40.2 billion dirhams, while imports were at 100.1 billion dirhams.

Diamonds topped the list of the top 5 items re-exported last year at Dh36.5 billion, followed by electrical appliances at Dh1.2 billion and precious stones at Dh1.04 billion. , followed by ships at 951 million dirhams, followed by jewelry, and precious metals at 878 million dirhams.

In exports, raw gold topped the list of the top 5 commodities worth Dh13.7 billion, followed by nickel scrap worth Dh4.6 billion, then platinum worth Dh4.2 billion, then scrap iron worth Dh2.6 billion, followed by polymers of ethylene worth Dh1.7 billion.

Among the top 5 items imported from India in 2022, electrical appliances topped with a value of Dh13.2 billion, followed by diamonds worth Dh12.7 billion, jewelery and precious metals worth Dh12.1 billion, followed by mineral oils worth Dh11.5 billion, followed by iron worth Dh3.12 billion. .