China is willing to accelerate the launch of currency swap agreements with Russia. It also wants to increase the amount of settlement in national currencies, said the Chairman of International Trade Negotiations of the Ministry of Commerce Zhong Shan.
Shan recalled that the agreement which was signed last year with the central banks of the two countries on the currency swap of 150 billion yuan is an important step for jointly confronting global and regional financial risks.
The Russian Central Bank in 2014 opened a swap line with the People's Bank of China for 150 billion yuan (about 24.5 billion dollars) for three years.
The Russian Central Bank pointed out that this agreement should not be regarded as prerequisite settlement in rubles and yuan; it merely provides an additional opportunity to access Russian and Chinese banks and their customers to yuan and ruble liquidity for the settlement of trade contracts.
The head of VTB bank, Andrey Kostin, said that the settlement in national currency between Russia and China is being carried out too slow. According to him, the Chinese side insists that the dominant role in settlement should be taken by yuan, as the ruble has recently shown a sharp negative dynamic.
But the Russian side, on the contrary, feels that there may be an imbalance in the use of currencies, although the settlement currency should be the currency of the exporter, the banker concluded.
