Putin: Russia supports settlements in Chinese yuan when trading with other countries

Russia supports the development of settlements in Chinese yuan when trading with countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, said President Vladimir Putin.

“We are for the use of Chinese yuan in settlements between the Russian Federation and the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America,” the head of state said during the Russian-Chinese talks in an expanded format. He also expressed confidence that such “forms of settlements will be developed between Russian partners and their counterparts in third countries.”

In September last year, Putin said that confidence in the dollar was lost, so Russia is trying to get away from settlements in an unfriendly currency. In this regard, Russia and China will use the ruble and yuan in equal proportions when paying for gas.

Previously became it is known that clients of Russian banks are increasingly borrowing and placing funds in Chinese currency, but its share in bank balance sheets is still too small. This was mentioned in the review of the Central Bank.

The debt of companies in yuan at the end of 2022 amounted to about 1%, or almost 600 billion rubles, of the entire corporate portfolio (59.1 trillion rubles), follows from the review. At the same time, the total share of loans in foreign currencies fell all last year due to sanctions from 23% to 16%, or 9.46 trillion rubles.