EAEU Must Boost Share Of National Currencies In Mutual Trade - Official

Muhammad Irfan Published March 20, 2019 | 07:05 AM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2019) Eurasian trading partners must increase the share of national currencies in mutual settlements, Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Assistant Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics, Fedor Chernitsyn, told reporters at the Russian Cultural Center in Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in September that Russia wanted to develop trade in national currencies with its partners replacing the US Dollar.

"We need to increase the share of national currencies," Chernitsyn said on Tuesday. "Officially, the issue of transition to a single Currency is not on the agenda now, we are only moving towards it."

Chernitsyn made the remarks at the fifth annual conference on doing business with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The event was organized by the Eurasia Center and the Eurasian Business Coalition, which promotes trade between the United States and countries in the region.

"A share of the use of national currencies in mutual settlements is growing, gradually becoming bigger and bigger," Chernitsyn said.

"We plan to create a financial mega-regulator of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in 2025 on the territory of Kazakhstan - an institution that will be an independent organization responsible for the single common financial policy of the union. Now the talks about the single currency are premature."

However, Chernitsyn added, the EEC believes that states should not pressure other members to make the move.

"It is currently being discussed at the expert level, at the theoretical level," he said. "The transition to a single currency is now possible, but we are not ready for it."

In September, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mger Grigoryan said that the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) should introduce the single currency and stop using US Dollars in intra-bloc trade.

The EAEU is an economic bloc comprising Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan. It aims to encourage regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services, and people within the union. The EEC is a permanent regulatory body of the EAEU.