The Central Bank of Russia has announced on Wednesday the official rates of the ruble against nine other foreign currencies.
The Russian Central Bank has listed a number of currencies as of January 18 for evaluation against the Russian ruble.
These include the Egyptian pound, the European dirham, the Thai Baht, the Vietnamese dong, the Serbian dinar, the New Zealand dollar, the Georgian lari, the Indonesian rupiah and the Qatari riyal.
The list of foreign currencies to be evaluated against the ruble was gathered by the Russian TASS agency.
An economist said in an exclusive statement to Al-Masry Al-Youm that listing the Egyptian pound to be evaluated against the Russian ruble comes within the framework of the government’s plans to reduce demand for the dollar.
Experts have explained upon anonymity, that the step will contribute to reducing the need for the US dollar in settling commercial transactions with Russia.
The areas of trade between Egypt and Russia is relatively large and they both share a long history together.
Egypt relies heavily on importation from Russia, especially basic commodities, including wheat.
A basic criteria will be used to measure the value of the two countries’ currencies, which will facilitate the process of the trade exchange between the two countries and increase reliance on the currencies of the two countries to settle business transactions.
Expert opinion on this matter says that settling a part of the commercial transactions in the local currency of the two countries contributes as well to a speeding up of the flow of trade between the two countries.
This is without taking into account the need to rely on foreign currencies, and thus reduces the need to rely on loans to meet dollar needs.
The US dollar prices have recently witnessed rises in the last week but have settled at LE29.6. This is definitely an incentive to try the Russian alternative.
