UPSC Articles
India looks to secure Dollar Swap Line
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – International Relations & GS-III – Economy
In News:
- India is working with the United States to secure a dollar swap line.
- It would help in better management of its external account.
- It would also provide extra safeguard in the event of an abrupt outflow of funds due to coronavirus-led lockdown.
Important value additions:
Currency swap agreements
- Such agreements involve trade in local currencies, where countries pay for imports and exports at pre-determined rates of exchange without the involvement of a third country currency like the US dollar.
- India already has a $75 billion bilateral currency swap line with Japan.
- The Reserve Bank of India also offers similar swap lines to central banks in the SAARC region within a total corpus of $2 billion.
- Benefits:
-
- These swap operations carry no exchange rate or other market risks, as transaction terms are set in advance.
- It reduces the risk of volatility against the third currency.
- It does away with the charges involved in multiple currency exchanges.
- It would discourage speculative attacks on the domestic currency.
