Russia settled a whopping 95 percent of its trade with India and China in national currencies last year, a leading trade grouping has told reporters.
"Ninety-five percent of payments in Chinese and Indian directions in 2023 were made in national currencies. Russia’s key trading partner is China, amounting to 29 percent of the trade turnover,” Tatyana Monaghan, the Secretary-General of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), has said.
The trade expert said that the share of Russia's foreign trade with friendly countries exceeded 75 percent in 2023.
During a telephone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that bilateral trade between the two nations stood at an all-time high of $227 billion last year.
All the three Eurasian nations, individually as well as part of multilateral groupings such as BRICS, are increasingly focussed on boosting the share of national currency settlements in order to minimise disruptions caused by factors such as unilateral western sanctions.
Russia Increases Settlements in Currencies of Friendly Countries
Monaghan further highlighted that "currencies of unfriendly countries", including the US Dollar (USD) and Euro, accounted for 34.1 percent of Russia's bilateral trade settlements in January-May 2023, as compared to 85.6 percent in January-December 2021.
Monaghan said that the share of Ruble in trade settlements has increased to 39.1 percent during the same period, while settlements in "currencies of friendly countries" has surged to 39.1 percent during the January-May 2023 time frame.
She noted that Russia mainly imported equipment (worth $25.24 billion - deliveries increased by 50.4 percent), ground transport ($22.52 billion, an increase of 258.4 percent) , electrical machines and electrical equipment ($17.08 billion, up 29 percent) from China last year.
"A smaller share of Chinese exports came from plastics, footwear, ferrous metal products, organic chemicals, rubber, clothing and knitwear," Monaghan stated.