EAEU effectively moves to settlements in national currencies, their share reaches 90% - Russian deputy PM

MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) - The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) have practically finished going over to settlements in national currencies for mutual trade in goods. The share in national currencies reached almost 90% in the first quarter of 2023.

"Since the dollar and the euro became currencies that are inaccessible to us, we see a rather positive increase in the use of national currencies. Here I would like to point out the figures for the first quarter of 2023: as you can see, 89% of trade in goods in the EAEU in the first quarter of 2023 is in national currencies. If we look at March, we have already reached 90%," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said at the Eurasian Economic Forum.

"This shows that generally we have now gone over to settlements in national currencies," he said.

The union has its own financial infrastructure, Overchuk said. "We have our own system, a payment system, and banks have very effectively joined [this] and are interacting, including by using Russia's system for transferring financial messages," he said.

Describing trade turnover between the EAEU countries, Overchuk said it has reached a record level of $83.3 billion this year.