India Considers Trading in Lira With Turkey - Commerce Minister Prabhu

11:33 GMT, 18 December 2018

India has committed to ease the bottlenecks in bilateral trade with Turkey. India’s commerce minister Suresh Prabhu has said he will be leading a delegation to Turkey early next year and that the idea of trading in local currencies is also being considered.

Sputnik

The Indian government has said it is deliberating Turkey's proposal to trade in local currencies. The statement was made by the minister of trade and commerce Suresh Prabhu during his bilateral meeting with his Turkish counterpart Rushar Pekcan in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Last week, India's Ministry of Finance announced the exchange rate for Turkish lira would ease the process of conversion of their respective currencies into INR and vice-versa while facilitating bilateral trade and commerce.

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Meanwhile, the Indian commerce minister said that India will address Turkey's concerns — from Agri products, banking issues, trade deficit and greater investments.

In 2017-18, India-Turkey bilateral trade stood at $7.2 billion. Turkey's imports from India during the period amounted to $5 billion, while exports to India during the same period were $2.2billion.

The two countries have also been investing in each other's economy over the last two decades. While India invested $121.36 during 1998-2017, Turkey invested around $182.18 in Indian sectors like construction, glass and machinery during the same period.