The participation of interstate associations in updating the global system of monetary and financial settlements was the main topic of the session “Greater Eurasia: Drivers for Forming an Alternative International Monetary and Financial System”, organized by the Eurasian Economic Commission on September 11 as part of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. The session broadcast is available at the following link.
Sergei Glazyev, EEC Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in his speech the success of the Eurasian Economic Union in transiting to settlements in national currencies and emphasized the particular relevance of this issue in terms of working out plans for the EAEU further development and its positioning in the Greater Eurasia space.
"In the EAEU, the share of settlements in national currencies in mutual trade amounted to 83% at year-end 2022," the EEC Minister said, expressing confidence that this trend will pick up.
Sergei Glazyev also emphasized that creating a new world currency was actively discussed at the key platforms of regional and interstate associations, including BRICS, whose weight in the global economy is constantly increasing.
The EEC Minister paid special attention to the issues of pricing of key commodities, noting the EAEU efforts to form the Eurasian common exchange space.
"Further development of settlements in national currencies in digital form is a very promising direction in the future," Sergei Glazyev said. "If the world's major economies or at least the BRICS countries agree to allocate certain quotas of their national currencies in digital form, then a few hundred brokers will balance these currencies on digital exchanges as well, and we could use them. I think that's going to happen."
Alexander Babakov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, supported the proposal on the need to elaborate the project of an international accounting unit, pointing to an important internal condition – reducing the volatility of the ruble and pursuing a monetary policy adequate to the tasks of national development.
The EAEU foreign partners spoke about transiting to new forms of settlements and adapting the infrastructure in the Greater Eurasia space necessary for such processes. For example, Sohail Khan, Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, informed on the steps taken by the SCO to transit to settlements in national currencies, noting the work within a specially created expert group consisting of representatives of the Ministries of Finance and central banks of the Organization's Member States.
“Specialists carry out a thorough analysis of the differences in the countries’ legislation on currency regulation, the current state of mutual settlements in national currencies, identify the restrictions constraining their development, as well as prospects for extension,” the SCO Deputy Secretary General noted.
Kan Zaw, Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, supported the thesis that it was necessary to modernize the monetary and financial system, which would take into account technological innovation, unprecedented level of the States' interdependence and growing role of developing countries in the global economy.
"A more inclusive system is required that would take into account the interests of States with emerging economies," Kang Zaw emphasized.
Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chunyang Institute of Financial Studies at the People's University of China, Andrey Klepach, Chief Economist at VEB.RF, Oleg Solntsev, Deputy Director General and Head of Monetary Policy Analysis at the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, Alexander Shirov, Director of the Institute of Macroeconomic Forecasting at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pepe Escobar, Economic Analyst in Brazil, and Oleg Noginsky, Head of the Expert Group of the Scientific Center for Eurasian Integration, shared their views on developing currency and financial ties as well.