EAEU Sovereign Currency Usage To Increase To 80-85% Of Total Trade
The share of national currencies usage in trade of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries is poised to grow to 80-85% from 75%, according to Dmitry Volvach, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia said last week.
The EAEU is a regional bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, and occupies a geographic space in Northern Eurasian between Eastern Europe and Western China. Volach said “We have recorded that more than 75% of all settlements in national currencies are already carried out for trade in goods in the union, and we will reach the bar of 80% and maybe even 85% in the fairly near future.” speaking at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) forum.
The mutual trade volume of EAEU goods set a historical record in 2022, reaching US$80.6 billion.
The Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) launched trading in the Kyrgyz Som and Armenian Dram against the Russian Ruble last year. “We have increased the volume of exchange trading in the currencies of the EAEU member countries by 17 times over the past year. This is very important.” Volvach said.
“We supported the work of the financial system of our association very seriously, and consciously and very correctly developed approaches to the development of settlements in national currencies, they created the foundation for secure settlements between our companies in the EAEU. We have set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that more than 50% of all banks of all EAEU member countries should have established correspondent relationships in national currencies.” Volvach said.
The move is especially important for Russia as it is cut off from the SWIFT banking network and has had its US Dollar and Euro accounts overseas suspended, and needs to trade in Rubles and other alternative currencies instead. About 80% of the total EAEU trade is with Russia.
Source: Elena Fabrichnaya for the Moscow Times
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