Russia will submit the issue of expanding the use of national currencies of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in trade settlements for discussion by the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council. RBC reports.
The recommendations include, among other things, ensuring the ability to pay without SWIFT. Economic Development Minister Maksim Reshetnikov will make a report on this issue.
The share of national currencies in mutual settlements of the EAEU states in 2022 is 74 percent, the draft Russian recommendations say. Ruble accounts for the lion’s share in them. According to the Eurasian Economic Commission, 71.5 percent of the transactions were made in the Russian currency, 26.2 percent — in dollars and euros, and among the currencies of other EAEU countries — 1.4 percent in tenge and 0.2 percent in Belarusian rubles in 2021.
The Russian side sees three directions of work to develop settlements in national currencies. Three measures are proposed within the framework of the first track «Development of an independent payment infrastructure in the EAEU.» First of all, it is necessary to ensure intersystem interaction of national payment card systems of the EAEU member states. Four of the five countries of the Union currently have national payment card systems (Kazakhstan is working on its creation). These are Armenian Card in Armenia, BelCard in Belarus, Elcard in Kyrgyzstan, Mir in Russia. An indicator of the solution of the problem will be the possibility of accepting cards of national payment systems in any of the EAEU member countries.
The second step is the functioning of a sufficient network of correspondent accounts of banks of the EAEU countries in national currencies.
The third step is to ensure the possibility of exchanging financial information without using the SWIFT system within mutual settlements. An indicator of the solution of this problem is the connection by the end of 2022 of national central banks to the financial message transmission system of the Bank of Russia, as well as the connection to it of the majority of banks that are servicing mutual trade.
The second direction of work is «Development of organized trade in national currencies». Russia sees two priority tasks: development of trading in currency pairs of the national currencies of the EAEU and launch of organized trading in commodity assets with the participation of economic entities of the Union countries in national currencies.
The third priority for joint work is informing the business community about the benefits of settlements in national currencies, as well as removal of internal barriers.
«Coordinated work of the EAEU member states for the qualitative growth in the use of national currencies in mutual settlements» will help increase the stability of national economies and macroeconomic stability," the proposals say.
The meeting of the Heads of Government of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union is held on August 25-26 in Cholpon-Ata city.
