Russia and Turkey ready to trade in national currencies

Russia is ready to trade with Turkey in rubles and liras, Russian Central Bank reported today. "There are no legal and technical obstacles for residents of Russia and Turkey to trade in national currencies. There is no need to sign a separate agreement between Central Banks of two countries for this purpose," the report said.

As chairman of the board of the National Currency Association Dmitry Piskulov noted in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, the discussion and approval of technical aspects of transition to trade in respective national currencies will take about a year. "There should be mechanisms of direct conversion of rubles into Turkish liras and Turkish liras into rubles, which is possible with the help of the Moscow Stock Exchange," he said, stressing that this step is welcomed.

"This project was discussed in Russia for a long time. It's a good step, because we will stop using currencies of foreign countries, like US dollar or euro, in trade. Due to the fact those are foreign currencies, our access to them may be limited. Since we can print rubles and liras trade in local currencies will allow us to stop using currencies of third countries, so our countries will be able to increase trade turnover," he explained.

Advisor on macroeconomics to the CEO of the 'Opening-Broker' brokerage house, economist Sergey Hestanov, noted that trade in national currencies will increase their popularity. "For those customers who have businesses in rubles, carry out payments in rubles, technically, it will be more convenient: they don't need to convert currency and there won't be any additional costs, associated with the conversion. At the technical level, trading in rubles and liras is very convenient," he explained.

"On the other hand, it won't provide great economic benefits: yes, it is useful, it provides certain convenience, but as for large contracts, where costs of conversion are not that big, these benefits will also be smaller," he warned.