India is importing record levels of discounted Russian crude, purchasing it in currencies other than the dollar. India then refines the Russian oil and exports fuel to Europe at a profit.
The EU sanctioned Russia and boycotted its oil, yet is still buying it indirectly from India, at a higher price. This is fueling both de-dollarization and inflation in the Eurozone, where workers’ real wages dropped 6.5% from 2020 to 2022.
As of April, Bloomberg reported, European imports of refined fuel from India are approaching 360,000 barrels per day.
This means that India is expected to soon surpass Saudi Arabia as the largest exporter of refined fuel to Europe.
At the same time, India is importing 44% of its oil from Russia, at an all-time high of approximately 2 million barrels per day, according to Bloomberg.
