In recent weeks, Russian credit institutions have begun buying Chinese yuan from the Central Bank of Russia through currency swaps, a deal that involves selling them back at a later time with interest. In this respect Wrote The newspaper Vedomosti cites regulatory data.
According to the publication, the volume of such purchases by Russian banks is increasing significantly, which can weaken the national currency.
The Central Bank launched this tool in January 2023, but until the last moment it was sufficient for Chinese currency lenders. On April 4 alone, banks bought 2.8 billion yuan at once with a limit of 10 billion from the regulator.
A possible reason for the yuan deficit is the record level of Chinese currency trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange – in March it reached 2 trillion rubles, which is 74 times higher than at the beginning of 2022. The yuan outpaced the US dollar and the European currency for the second month in a row, with 1.69 trillion and 1.26 trillion, respectively.
The previous day, the Bloomberg agency, after examining the daily trading reports of the Moscow Stock Exchange, to come It was concluded that the Chinese yuan was able to replace the dollar and became the most traded currency in Russia, which was helped by the sanctions against Moscow.