Yuan benefiting from sanctions on Russia – tycoon
The share of Chinese yuan in global payments has nearly doubled because of the sanctions policies pursued by the US and the EU, Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska said on Wednesday.
The aluminum magnate referred to a report in the Financial Times, which cited figures showing that global settlements carried out in the Chinese currency had gone from 1.9% in January 2023 to 3.6% in October.
“The number of worldwide transactions made in Chinese yuan has doubled over the past year, highlighting the extreme success of European and American sanctions policies,” Deripaska said in a sarcastic remark on his Telegram channel.
The billionaire added that volumes of cross-border trade payments in Chinese yuan would exceed those made in euro within just four years.
“And at this point the sanctions can be considered a finished exercise,” he added.
According to the FT report, reducing reliance on the US dollar and other G7 currencies had become essential for China due to the escalation of sanctions against Russia and tensions with the US over Taiwan.
In September, the yuan became the second-most used currency in global transactions, surpassing the euro for the first time since data started being tracked around six years ago, according to a monthly tracker of the Chinese currency released by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
Since the imposition of sanctions in 2022 and their subsequent extension, Russia and its trading partners among developing nations have intensified efforts to reduce the use of the Western financial system and replace the US dollar and euro with national currencies, including yuan, rupees and dirhams for trade settlements.
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