China-Russia Trade Rises Just 1.9%!
Will there be any issues with the trade between China and Russia?
From January to August this year, the total trade volume between China and Russia reached 158.469 billion US dollars.
From a year-on-year perspective, there is still growth, but the growth rate has significantly slowed down to just 1.9%.
In fact, in the first few months of this year, the growth rate of China-Russia trade was quite good, but with the United States intervening and continuously increasing sanctions, trade has indeed been affected to some extent.
The main impact comes from the payment aspect.
Some analysts have pointed out that there have indeed been some issues in the payment methods of China-Russia trade, and we might have to resort to barter.
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The reason why US sanctions can have such a huge impact on the economic and trade cooperation of other countries lies in its strong economic status and its strong influence in the international financial system.
For example, the United States excluded Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which directly led to difficulties in settling Russian trade in US dollars.
In the last two to three months, there have been delays in RMB payments in a significant part of China-Russia trade, and some RMB payments have even been returned.
Currently, Russia is facing a shortage of RMB, and the short-term loan interest rates of domestic banks in RMB have been climbing as a result.
In fact, the Russian side has already noticed this problem.
Now, with the efforts of all parties, a solution has finally been found, such as bypassing some links through third countries.
Despite this, the situation is still not optimistic.
On one hand, the impact of US sanctions continues to exist.
On the other hand, both the time spent on finding solutions and the actions to evade sanctions have increased costs, which are unbearable for some small and medium-sized enterprises.
In response to this issue, China and Russia seem to plan to adopt a method that has been relatively rare before - barter.
According to foreign media speculation, the transaction may start as early as this autumn, and China and Russia plan to first barter in the agricultural sector, such as grain, which can effectively avoid the pressure exerted by the United States on the financial institutions of both countries.
Since neither China nor Russia has confirmed this news, it is for reference only.
However, China has indeed had examples of barter with other countries in recent years, including Iran and Malaysia.
But undoubtedly, a more effective method is to establish a new payment system to minimize the impact of US sanctions.
In this regard, Russia is particularly urgent.
At the upcoming BRICS summit next month, Putin may make a big move, which is worth looking forward to.
However, it is very likely that because Russia will promote the establishment of the BRICS payment system, the United States has felt threatened, so the attitude of the United States seems to have softened.
Recently, the International Monetary Fund will visit Russia and will have in-depth consultations with Russia in the next 15 days.
For this matter, although several European countries have expressed opposition, the United States has not spoken out, so it seems that the actions of the IMF are actually tacitly approved and even promoted by the United States.
Perhaps the United States is finally afraid and wants to make compromises and concessions to avoid the impact of the BRICS payment system on the US dollar.
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