Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced Russia’s readiness to switch to the yuan in foreign trade settlements with countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
He said this during the Russian-Chinese talks with the participation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, RBC reports.
Currently, the share of the yuan in Russia’s export calculations is about 16%.
“We are in favour of using the Chinese yuan in settlements between Russia and the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I am sure that these forms of payments in yuan will be developed between Russian partners and their colleagues in third countries,” Putin said.
According to [Putin], national currencies are already actively used in Russian-Chinese trade.
“It is important that national currencies are increasingly being used in mutual trade. This practice should be further encouraged, and the mutual presence of financial and banking structures in the markets of our countries should be expanded,” Putin added.
As RBC notes, in recent years, Russia has discussed the program of de-dollarisation of the economy and foreign trade. This plan was submitted to the government five years ago, in 2018.
Among the main proposals was switching foreign trade to the Russian roubles and other national currencies. Among the reasons for moving away from US dollars in foreign trade calculations, the Russian authorities mentioned the threat of sanctions.
In 2022, the share of the yuan in export payments in Russia increased from 0.5% to 16%, and the share of the ruble — from 12% to 34%, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation reported. This happened against the background of large-scale sanctions after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In August 2022, Russia became the third country in the world in terms of offshore payments in yuan.