30 May 2022 10:16

Eurasian Economic Commission minister calls for creating EAEU exchange space, shifting to prices denominated in national currencies

MINSK. May 30 (Interfax) - Eurasian Economic Commission Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics Sergei Glazyev has called for creating an exchange space in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) by shifting to a system of prices denominated in national currencies and independent from the West.

"We have been repeatedly proposing to create a Europe-type currency snake [an agreement on coordinated efforts of EU members that regulates possible fluctuations of national currencies against one another]. What I mean is to create a mechanism of mutual restrictions on fluctuations of currency rates in order to attain stability in our Eurasian Union from the angle of national currencies," Glazyev said in an interview with the Belarusian television channel Belarus 1.

"It is easy to shift to payments in national currencies. However, this is not just a matter of calculations, say, those based on cross-rates to the dollar. There is need for direct exchange rates formation, our exchanges should determine the correlation between rates [of national currencies] on their own," he said.

Banks should ensure mutual stability of these exchange rates "so that we can have conditions for pricing in national currencies," Glazyev said.

"If you remember, hydrocarbon prices dropped to zero two years ago. Why would we need such prices for our resources? We produce oil, gas, grain, sugar and mineral fertilizers, while prices are formed somewhere in the West. We have absolutely no impact on them. Such Western price fluctuations trigger fluctuations of prices on all commodities here," he said.

"Hence, it is a key task to create our own exchange space and to shift to our own system of prices denominated in national currencies," Glazyev said.