Russia-India trade to break record in 2022
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Russian and Indian relations are developing as the world tries to isolate Moscow in light of the Ukraine war.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at Hyderabad House, on December 6, 2021 in New Delhi, India (Getty Images)
The deputy head of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, Vladimir Ivin, said Thursday that his country's trade with India would exceed $30 billion and set a new record in 2022.
"This year, [Russia and India] will indeed, most likely, exceed $30 billion in our mutual trade, which will be not only a significant increase but also an absolute record," he said addressing the 13th Russia-India Business Dialogue forum at the press-center of the international media group Rossiya Segodnya.
Ivin also pointed out an existing disproportion between exports and imports. He noted due to the fact that the lion's share of bilateral trade is Russian exports of energy resources, fertilizers, and other goods, Russian actors had been accumulating rupees in India.
“We analyze this situation and try to prepare for it in advance, realizing that rupees won’t be accumulating indefinitely. Businesses, in order to find how to spend them, will begin to purchase more and more goods from India, which will go to the Russian market,” Ivin underlined.
The official underlined that 3,951 Russian entities are trading with India now, with half of them being low-risk actors, allowing them to enjoy simplified procedures. In order to avoid difficulties, the customs service is constantly in touch with Indian businesses, Ivin added.
In 2021, Russia-India trade grew by almost 50% and surpassed $13.5 billion, according to the Russian government.
This comes as India maintained for the second month in a row its standing as Russia's top buyer of Ural crude oil, importing most of Russia's loading of the resource in December, traders have said, in addition to data from Refinitiv.
Russia's volumes, as well as India's shares of the exports, are expected to maintain an uptick for the coming months though there is a shorter loading plan for Russia's Western ports, analysts have been saying.
India accounted back in November for some 53% of Russia's total tanker shipments, which is the highest share recorded.
However, it is expected that this record will be broken this month, with India's shares projected to exceed 70% of total loadings in December.
India's imports of Urals crude are coming in at a steep discount in light of the West imposing on Russia a gas price cap, though reports say the price reduction is even lower than the $60 price cap.
Russia has now sent at least 2 million tons to India as key market players expect the monthly volume to sharply increase amid further inspection of more recent shipping data.
