Russian experts: It will take at most 15 years for the RMB to become the main currency for international settlements

Russian experts: It will take at most 15 years for the RMB to become the main currency for international settlements. Sina US Stock News, Beijing time on the 16th. Russian Satellite Network reported that the Russian Academy of Sciences...

Sina US Stock News, Beijing time on the 16th. Russian Sputnik reported that Andrei Ostrovsky, deputy director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that it will take 10 to 15 years for the RMB to become the main currency for international settlements to crowd out the U.S. dollar and the euro.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) earlier released a report stating that the proportion of RMB international payments in 2017 reached 1.6%.

Ostrovsky believes that the reason why the RMB’s global transaction usage ranks low is that the public has not yet become accustomed to using the RMB as an international transaction currency.

He said: "For the time being, everyone is accustomed to using U.S. dollars and euros. The East is accustomed to using U.S. dollars, and Europe is using Euros. With China's economic development and the expansion of economic and trade relations, the RMB will find its place. At least in Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the RMB has already found its place."

He said that it will take at least 10 years for China's RMB to be at the top of the global payment currency rankings.

He said: "I think it will take 10 to 15 years for the RMB to reach a larger proportion in international payments. To this end, the RMB should seize share from the US dollar and the euro. China will gradually occupy the Southeast Financial markets in Asia and Africa. But in Latin American countries, the role of the RMB is limited because it is the hereditary territory of the US dollar. "

The report released by SWIFT also pointed out that the usage rate of the RMB in Russia reached 0.12%. Ostrovsky said that the Russian business community should be more active in using the renminbi.

He said: "Russian business has not yet used RMB, which is a negative situation for Russia. We talked about China as our partner and ally, but we trade through US dollars, which makes us all suffer losses. We should use RMB to trade with China. We have a common border and a series of cooperation projects."

Ostrovsky also said that the growth of bilateral trade between Russia and China can increase the proportion of RMB payments.

The trade volume between Russia and China in 2017 increased by 20.8% year-on-year, reaching US$84 billion.

On October 1, 2016, the RMB officially joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency basket. The SDR currency basket was accordingly expanded to include five currencies: the US dollar, the euro, the renminbi, the Japanese yen, and the pound sterling. The RMB's weight in it is 10.92%, and the weights of the US dollar, the euro, the yen, and the pound sterling are 41.73%, 30.93%, 8.33%, and 8.09% respectively.