In less than seven years, the share of settlements in national currencies between Russia and China has grown almost tenfold.

So, today, countries conduct almost a quarter of all mutual transactions in rubles and yuan.

This was announced on Tuesday, December 29, by the Russian ambassador to China, Andrei Denisov.

His words are quoted by TASS.

“The share of national currencies in our relations with China is steadily increasing.

According to our Chinese partners, it reached about a quarter in eight to nine months of 2020 - 24-25%.

This is quite a big progress, ”Denisov noted.

According to him, back in 2013-2014 "this share was negligible and amounted to about 2-3%."

As the acting director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Maslov told RT, in recent years Russia and China have systematically reduced the presence of the dollar in mutual settlements as part of a joint strategy.

In this sense, the values ​​achieved today are “the result of long work,” the expert believes.

“We see that now more and more Russian and Chinese manufacturers and sellers are joining settlements in national currencies.

If initially these were mainly bank transfers, then at the moment many Russian representatives of small and medium-sized businesses that enter the Chinese market are interested in the yuan, and vice versa, ”Maslov said.

In addition to small and medium-sized enterprises, large state-owned companies of Russia and China, as well as organizations with state participation, are actively increasing mutual settlements in rubles and yuan.

Yevgeny Mironyuk, an analyst at Freedom Finance, told RT about this.

According to him, primarily the use of national currencies is growing in the oil and gas sector.

At the same time, in the next ten years, the de-dollarization course will also affect the trade in goods in the agricultural sector, Mironyuk is sure.

According to Andrei Denisov, the observed rejection of the dollar is largely due to the fact that the United States can use its currency as a lever of political pressure.

Against this background, an increase in settlements in national currencies helps to reduce the sanctions risks.

A similar point of view is shared by Vadim Iosub, a senior analyst at the Alpari Eurasia Information and Analytical Center.

“Moscow and Beijing are stepping up operations in national currencies, since in the future the United States may theoretically introduce restrictions affecting payments in dollars.

In addition, Russia and China are increasingly trying to work with their own payment systems instead of the international banking system SWIFT, which could potentially become an instrument of sanctions, ”explained Vadim Iosub.

Moreover, as experts note, conducting transactions in yuan and rubles is much cheaper for Russia and China than using dollars.

Thus, operations in national currencies can reduce financial losses during recalculations and conversions.

“Since there is no direct dependence on the dollar, we can win at least 0.5% on each transaction.

A very impressive amount is obtained in the total volume of trade.

And besides, the issues of transferring funds and reinvestment are technically simplified when Russians earn money in China, ”explained Alexey Maslov.

In his opinion, this state of affairs may lead to an additional increase in the volume of Russian-Chinese trade.

At the same time, the cost of goods for end consumers in both countries may decrease, the expert said.

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According to Alexei Maslov's forecast, in the coming years the share of settlements in rubles and yuan between Russia and China may additionally grow and approach 50%.

The impetus for this should be the expected launch of digital national currencies in both countries, the specialist is sure.

According to the Danish investment bank Saxo Bank, in 2019 the share of non-cash payments in China reached 80%.

Against this background, in October 2020, the Asian republic conducted a pilot test of the digital yuan, and in the future it may introduce e-currency into trade settlements.

At the same time, in October 2020, the Bank of Russia presented a report on the creation and implementation of the digital ruble.

It is expected that in the experimental mode, the electronic currency can start working by the end of 2021.

“The use of digital rubles and yuan will allow reaching another level of payments.

The fact is that today a significant part of transactions still go through the old fashioned way: using bank transfers.

So far, these transfers are mainly carried out in other currencies, through American banks or the SWIFT system.

Thus, transactions become completely open to third parties, which is not always a good thing.

Digital currencies should solve this problem, ”concluded Alexey Maslov.