Indian traders have been scooping up Chinese steel at a deep discount, industry officials and analysts said, spooking Indian producers ahead of a seasonal pick up in domestic demand.

Oil prices fell more than a dollar a barrel on Friday as the dollar strengthened and oil traders booked profits from a strong rally, with crude benchmarks recording their third-straight weekly gain.

India has signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates that will allow it to settle trade in rupees instead of dollars, boosting India’s efforts to cut transaction costs by eliminating dollar conversions.

The Indian rupee rose for a second straight session against the US dollar on Tuesday, mirroring similar moves in Asian peers, as risk appetite in the region rose on fresh bets of the Federal Reserve nearing the end of its rate tightening cycle.

The Indian rupee managed to recover on Monday and far forward premium rose, tracking a fall in near-maturity US yields after data showed US payrolls rose less than expected.

India’s inflation likely snapped a four-month decline in June as food prices surged, a Reuters poll of economists found, making a cut in interest rates unlikely any time soon, while the Reserve Bank of India is also expected to resist pressure to raise rates.

Bangladesh, India to begin bilateral trade in rupee from July 11

India’s fuel demand eased 3.7 per cent in June month-on-month, government data showed on Friday, as monsoon rains restricted mobility in the world’s third-biggest oil consumer.

The Indian rupee ended at an over one-month low against the US dollar on Friday, and logged its worst week in seven on worries that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates more than expected this year.

Global rice prices, now at their highest in 11 years, are set to rally further after India moved to boost payments to farmers, just as El Nino threatens yields in key producers and alternative staples get costlier for poor Asians and Africans.

India will break ground next month on its first semiconductor assembly plant and begin producing its first domestically manufactured microchips by the end of 2024, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The Indian rupee climbed to a near two-month high versus the US currency on Monday on the back of dollar offers by foreign banks, traders said.

Indian refiners have begun paying for some oil imports from Russia in Chinese yuan, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, as Western sanctions force Moscow and its customers to find alternatives to the dollar for settling payments.

India’s goods and services tax (GST) collections rose nearly 12 per cent year-on-year to 1.61 trillion rupees ($19.61 billion) in June, a government statement showed on Saturday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with U.S. and Indian technology executives in Washington on Friday, the final day of a state visit where he agreed new defense and technology cooperation and addressed challenges posed by China.

India’s wheat harvest in 2023 is at least 10 percent lower than the government’s estimate, a leading trade body told Reuters on Wednesday, amid a sharp rise in local prices during the past two months.

A sequential increase in merchandise imports in May that led to the trade deficit widening to a five-month high signalled a stable local economy, economists said.

India is weighing a proposal to begin barter trade in goods like fertiliser and gas with Egypt as part of a wider deal that could see New Delhi extending a credit line worth several billion dollars to Cairo, sources told Reuters.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is looking to tighten scrutiny on the unsecured lending portfolios of banks amid the growing risk of potential defaults, four banking sources told Reuters.

India’s annual retail inflation cooled to a more than two-year low of 4.25 per cent in May as cost pressures on food eased, moving closer to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) target of 4 per cent, government data showed on Monday.