Russia plans to issue its first 'Panda' bonds next year – finance ministry

Russia wants to issue sovereign debt denominated in Chinese currency and sell it on the Moscow Stock Exchange starting next year, Russia's Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev has announced.

“There are plans to list yuan-denominated bonds in Moscow in 2020,” the official said as cited by TASS.

The idea has been considered since 2016, but the launch was subsequently postponed several times. However, this year the move returned to the spotlight, as both Russia and China, facing US financial pressure, try to counter the dominance of the US dollar.

The measure would mark another step towards de-dollarization, as Moscow and Beijing cannot fully cut reliance from the greenback at this point.

China is Russia’s largest trade partner, and the trade turnover between the two exceeded $100 billion last year, while they expect to double this record in 5 years. Since January to September 2019, year-on-year volume of trade jumped 3.7 percent and has topped $80 billion.

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