India’s Finance Minister said on Thursday that the country’s strategy to control inflation included importing Russian oil and that other nations were following the same.
India, despite pressure from the West, has not denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February and has instead called for a diplomatic resolution to the issue and an end to the use of violence. Russia has long been India’s top international defence equipment exporter.
According to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s crude oil imports from all sources have increased from roughly 2% before February to between 12% and 13% of total imports.
India is the third-largest importer and user of crude oil in the world, and Sitharaman hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for balancing trade and other relations with different nations.
“I give credit to the statesmanship of the prime minister to make sure globally that we did keep up the relationship with all countries but yet managed to get the Russian fuel, which is what Japan is doing today, which is what some other countries are doing,” Sitharaman said at an event in New Delhi.
Sitharaman claimed that managing India’s inflation required “an exercise of so many activities, most of which are outside the (purview of) monetary policy”.
Retail prices in India increased 6.71 percent in July compared to the same month last year. Even though the annual inflation rate has now decreased for three consecutive months, it has now surpassed the central bank’s tolerance range of 2% to 6% for seven consecutive months.
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