US prompting world to turn away from dollar – IMF official

Washington has created conditions that force countries worldwide to search for alternatives to the US dollar, Russia’s representative at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told RIA Novosti on Monday.   

According to Aleksey Mozhin, more states are boosting the use of alternative currencies in cross-border transactions, in particular the Chinese yuan.   

“We can see that Iranians, Brazilians, and Saudis are already switching to trade in yuan, not only with China, but also with third countries,” Mozhin noted.  

He linked the greenback’s long-standing dominance in the global economy to a lack of competition, as the dollar accounts for most international settlements and deposits worldwide.   

However, American officials are already sounding the alarm over the greenback’s fate, Mozhin claimed, due to what he described as the abandonment of the US currency.  

“It’s clear that it will not happen at once, but the process has begun,” he said.  

The US uses the dollar “for the purposes of national interests, [and] the economic and financial obligations of one country,” therefore it is “wrong” that it is so widely used elsewhere, Mozhin concluded.  

Russia actively began to replace the dollar and euro with other currencies in foreign settlements last year, and has dramatically reduced the number of bank accounts and transactions between companies and financial institutions involving Western currencies.    

The share of the dollar and euro in Russia’s international settlements fell from 90% in early 2022 to less than 50% by the end of last year – a trend that will continue, according to Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Vladimir Ilyichev.

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