China’s yuan becomes most traded foreign currency on Russian exchange amid efforts to ‘de-dollarise’ economy
- A total of 64,900 yuan-rouble transactions were completed on Monday, with the volume of trading reaching 70.3 billion roubles (US$1.17 billion)
- Russia has been forced to settle more transactions in yuan after being hit with Western financial sanctions for invading Ukraine
The yuan surpassed the US dollar for the first time this week to become the most traded foreign currency on the Moscow exchange as tensions with the West push the Russian economy closer to China.
A total of 64,900 yuan-rouble transactions were completed on Monday, with the volume of trading reaching 70.3 billion roubles (US$1.17 billion), data from the Moscow Exchange Group showed.
In comparison, spot trading of the US dollar-rouble pair totalled 68.2 billion roubles over 29,500 transactions.
Strong yuan-rouble trading continued on Tuesday, though at a slightly lower level.
Russia has been forced to settle more transactions in yuan after being hit with Western financial sanctions for invading Ukraine.
Russia became the third largest market for offshore yuan transactions in August, accounting for 4.27 per cent of total yuan payments, behind Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, according to Swift data.
In May, Russia was ranked No 12 in the world, but did not feature in the top 15 before that.
This was an inevitable process since Russia was pushed to ‘de-dollarise’ its economy under the pressure of sanctions