Agence France-Presse - 6/16/2009 11:48 AM GMT
Russia may diversify reserves from dollar: Kremlin
Russia may shift its reserve funds investments from dollars to bonds issued by China, India and Brazil if they reciprocate the move, the Kremlin's chief economic advisor said Tuesday.
The comments came as the four rapidly developing nations -- dubbed the BRIC -- held their first-ever summit in bid to shore up their market potential through cooperation.
"We could invest our reserves not only in US and European countries, but in the financial instruments traded by our partners in BRIC," Arkady Dvorkovich said on the sidelines of the summit in the Russia city of Yekaterinburg.
"This would be absolutely logical, if our partners agreed to place part of their reserves in our Russian instruments."
Russia last month already pledged to buy 10 billion dollars' worth of the International Monetary Funds' first-ever bond offers to back the institution's goal to provide loans to countries hard hit by the global economic crisis.
Dvorkovich reaffirmed Moscow's intention to buy the IMF bonds but suggested the institution should revise the basket of currencies used to value its financial products to include the Russian ruble and the Chinese yuan.
The question of whether a new global reserve currency should emerge to balance the dollar was also on Moscow's agenda for the summit Tuesday, he said.
But Dvorkovich insisted that none of the Russian proposals were targeted at undermining the dollar, which dropped in value after Russian leaders cast doubt on its status as a reserve currency.
"There is an understanding that the last thing we need now is turmoil on financial markets," Dvorkovich said.
"No one wants to ruin the dollar, including us. We need to discuss every nuance of the problem and this is an approach we are sticking to."
Russia may diversify reserves from dollar: Kremlin
Russia may shift its reserve funds investments from dollars to bonds issued by China, India and Brazil if they reciprocate the move, the Kremlin's chief economic advisor said Tuesday.
The comments came as the four rapidly developing nations -- dubbed the BRIC -- held their first-ever summit in bid to shore up their market potential through cooperation.
"We could invest our reserves not only in US and European countries, but in the financial instruments traded by our partners in BRIC," Arkady Dvorkovich said on the sidelines of the summit in the Russia city of Yekaterinburg.
"This would be absolutely logical, if our partners agreed to place part of their reserves in our Russian instruments."
Russia last month already pledged to buy 10 billion dollars' worth of the International Monetary Funds' first-ever bond offers to back the institution's goal to provide loans to countries hard hit by the global economic crisis.
Dvorkovich reaffirmed Moscow's intention to buy the IMF bonds but suggested the institution should revise the basket of currencies used to value its financial products to include the Russian ruble and the Chinese yuan.
The question of whether a new global reserve currency should emerge to balance the dollar was also on Moscow's agenda for the summit Tuesday, he said.
But Dvorkovich insisted that none of the Russian proposals were targeted at undermining the dollar, which dropped in value after Russian leaders cast doubt on its status as a reserve currency.
"There is an understanding that the last thing we need now is turmoil on financial markets," Dvorkovich said.
"No one wants to ruin the dollar, including us. We need to discuss every nuance of the problem and this is an approach we are sticking to."
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