Share of national currencies in mutual settlements in the Eurasian Economic Union is 73 percent to date. It has grown by 10 percent for six years. Evgeny Vinokurov, Chief Economist at the Eurasian Development Bank and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development, announced today at an online presentation of an analytical report.
According to him, there is growth potential. The rest of the settlements can be also made in national currencies, having achieved success in de-dollarization. There are growth points in the use of national currencies, primarily the ruble and tenge, for settlements with third countries outside the EAEU. Already now, every third transaction with Turkey and every fifth import transaction with India are in rubles. Less success is observed in trade with China, but there is growth potential.
«Why these countries? Import into the EAEU is important for them. We have a sufficiently strong competitive position in trade, a negotiating position. A significant part of imports can be converted into settlements in the national currencies of the Union states. There are such growth points outside the EAEU as well. In addition to the ruble, tenge is also growing quite significantly. It is used in settlements with Russia, in 19 percent of settlements with Kyrgyzstan. We believe that there is a potential for growth of tenge as the economic integration with Uzbekistan deepens,» Evgeny Vinokurov said.
At the same time, experts believe that further strengthening of potential for use of national currencies in settlements in the EAEU can be achieved by combining two packages of measures. Macroeconomic and credit stability should be the basis for the fact that exporters, importers and all market participants find it interesting and profitable to service their flows in national currencies. In addition, there should be a package of government policy measures aimed at making it as comfortable for the market participants as possible.
