New Delhi, Oct. 17 -- India is promoting trade settlements in rupees and local currencies to help partner countries facing shortages of hard currencies continue importing essential goods, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.

Speaking at an interaction organised by the Atlantic Council on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, Sitharaman noted that countries facing foreign currency constraints often struggle to maintain imports despite their need for essential goods.

"One of the things that we in India want to do is to settle in rupee, whatever the payment is got to be done by those countries which import goods from us," she said, PTI reported.

Sitharaman highlighted that India was worki...