Russia is one of the top three countries in terms of transactions with the yuan outside of China
Russia entered the top three leading countries in terms of the volume of offshore payments in yuan – in August, it accounted for 4.3% of foreign exchange transactions abroad, informs RBC with reference to the SWIFT report – an international banking system for transmitting information and making payments. Hong Kong (71.14%) and Great Britain (5.75%) are ahead of Russia.
From the monthly reports of SWIFT, it follows that the growth of Russia’s share in the volume of offshore Yuanemicheskoe analysis over the past five months. Until the spring of 2022, Russia was not among the top 15 countries with the largest share, at the beginning it came in 12th place with a share of 0.62%. According to the results of May, the share of Russia increased to 0.79%, according to the results of June to 1.42% (the seventh line in the spike). In July, it grew by 3.9% and Russia for the first time took third place, which has been preserved.
Egor Susin, Managing Director of Gazprombank Private Banking, noted that the statistics reflect the growth of transactions in yuan against the backdrop of restrictions on the dollar and the euro. In the Moscow Region, there is also an increase in the share of the yuan – over the five months of 2022, it grew 14 times on the exchange markets for foreign exchange trading.
According to the Moscow Exchange, in August, the trading volume in the yuan/ruble pair with expectations for tomorrow reached 1.3 trillion rubles. On average, a day for this pair of securities, it was about 55.5 billion rubles, follows from the data of the exchange. For comparison: the total volume of the initial amount of euro / ruble in August was 1.4 trillion rubles, the total volume of the yuan in August, which previously amounted to about 22 billion rubles.
Oleg Syrovatkin, Leading Analyst of the Otkritie Investments Research Department, observed the growth of Russia’s share in the total volume of traffic in yuan – firstly, import operations in yuan, and secondly, as Western countries refuse Russian energy carriers, the volume of export operations denominated in yuan. Thirdly, it produces, the EU is discussing new proposals, including financial ones, against Russia, which may intensify the use of the yuan in the economic sector.
According to Susin, the yuan is becoming the base currency for Russia, so the country will gradually move to the next influence in the ranking of offshore yuan centers and may eventually catch up with the UK. The expert added that the growth rate of Russia’s share in offshore yuan payments is in sharp acceleration – “a sharp transition has already taken place”, in the development of dynamics it will slow down.