“Dropping the dollar? Not very realistic”

Speculation about dropping the dollar as the key trading currency, which would be of interest for the Russia-China partnership, aren’t realistic, said Natalia Zaderey from the Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Moscow.

“The Chinese economy is very dependent upon the dollar, so dropping it might be of interest for the country in the long-term perspective,” Zaderey noted.

“But talking about right now in times of the financial crisis, a lot of people are speculating about these measures, but they don’t seem very realistic in the upcoming years because the financial reserves, for the most part, are in dollars, and trade between Russia and China and the US is very big”.

The issue has been raised as Russian premier Vladmir Putin is in Beijing, concluding deals worth 5.5 billion dollars.