The Ministry of Finance told about the absence of international settlements of Russia in dollars

Russian companies have practically ceased to carry out cross-border settlements in dollars. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Alexei Moiseev.

“It’s not a secret for anyone that the settlements “ruble – dollar” are practically cross-border. <...> I would say that they are not. There are individual episodes that occasionally occur. From the point of view of the system, they do not exist,” Moiseev said at the conference “Banks. Transformation. Economy. 2.0″ (quote according to TASS).

The deputy minister explained this trend by blocking Russian accounts abroad, as well as by the reluctance to use such a currency, since “it may not reach the addressee.” At the same time, international settlements in euros still remain, but “are gradually disappearing,” he said.

At the beginning of March, the Bank of Russia released “Review of the risks of financial markets”, according to which the share of payments for exports in Chinese yuan increased from 0.5 to 16%. There was also an increase in transfers in rubles from 12 to 34%.

Settlements in the currencies of unfriendly countries – dollars and euros – fell from 87% by almost 40 percentage points. The Central Bank noted that the difference between exports and imports (net exports) in euros became negative.

In the summer of 2022, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told Vedomosti, which allows the option of barter instead of settlements in the currencies of unfriendly countries. “We do not plan to switch to barter, but if our companies agree on barter transactions through accounting in the national currency, we will not interfere with this,” Siluanov said at the time.