India not pursuing alternative to US dollar for global trade: CEA

New Delhi: The Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran on Wednesday said that the country is not pursuing any proposal to replace the US dollar as international currency for global trade.

"No, certainly not. I think India is not part of any such initiative," he said in response to a question if India is looking at an alternative currency to the US dollar for global trade.

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Although last year, at the BRICS Summit held in October in Kazan, Russia, India and other BRICS nations had contemplated settlement of cross-border payments in local currency and had agreed for creation of a special BRICS currency.

"We recognise the widespread benefits of faster, low cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments built upon the principle of minimising trade barriers and non-discriminatory access.

"We welcome the use of local currencies in financial transactions between BRICS countries and their trading partners," the declaration of the 16th BRICS Summit held in October 2024 had said.

BRICS is a grouping of emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. It aims to promote unified emerging economy perspectives in multilateral forums.

Nageswaran further emphasised that there is not a very viable alternative to the US dollar at this point, and it may take even a much longer time to emerge.

However, central banks are keeping their portfolio of foreign exchange reserves on a diversified basis.

The Reserve Bank has also increased its share of gold purchases etc in the last few years, he said.

"So, there is a constant attention being paid to the composition of the foreign exchange reserves, including gold," he added.

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