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Russia, China agree on more trade currency swaps to bypass dollar


The Russian and Chinese central banks have agreed on a draft currency swap agreement, which will allow them to increase trade in domestic currencies and cut the dependence on the US dollar in bilateral payments.

“The draft document between the Central Bank of Russia and the People’s Bank of China on national currency swaps has been agreed by the parties,” and is at the stage of formal approval procedures, ITAR-TASS quotes the Russian regulator’s office on Thursday.

The Russian Central Bank is not giving precise details on the size of the currency swaps, nor when it will be launched. It says this will depend on demand.

According to the bank, the agreement will serve as an additional instrument for ensuring international financial stability. Also, it will offer the possibility to obtain liquidity in critical situations.

“The agreement will stimulate further development of direct trade in yuan and rubles on the domestic foreign exchange markets of Russia and China,” the Russian regulator said.

Currently, over 75 percent of payments in Russia-China trade settlements are made in US dollars, according to Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.

In early July, the Central Bank’s chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina said Moscow and Beijing were close to reaching an agreement on conducting swap operations in national currencies to boost trade. The deal was later discussed during her trip to China.

President Vladimir Putin, during his visit to Shanghai in May, said cooperation between Russian and Chinese banks was growing, and the two sides were set to continue developing the financial infrastructure.

“Work is underway to increase the amount of mutual payments in national currencies, and we intend to consider new financial instruments,” Putin said after talks with President Xi Jinping.

Later on, during his meeting with leading international news agencies on the sidelines of the St Petersburg’s economic forum, Putin said that Russia and China had made “the first modest steps” in using national currencies in international settlements. He added that the two countries were going to continue exploring opportunities for working together.

A currency swap is widely used and allows simultaneously exchanging a specific amount of one currency for another currency with two different settlement dates.

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Russian companies ‘de-dollarize’ and switch to yuan, other Asian currencies
Published time: June 09, 2014 11:54
Edited time: June 11, 2014 09:30 Get short URL

Reuters/Petar Kujundzic

China, Currencies, Economy, Russia and the global economy
Russia will start settling more contracts in Asian currencies, especially the yuan, in order to lessen its dependence on the dollar market, and because of Western-led sanctions that could freeze funds at any moment.

“Over the last few weeks there has been a significant interest in the market from large Russian corporations to start using various products in renminbi and other Asian currencies, and to set up accounts in Asian locations,” Pavel Teplukhin, head of Deutsche Bank in Russia, told the Financial Times, which was published in an article on Sunday.

Diversifying trade accounts from dollars to the Chinese yuan and other Asian currencies such as the Hong Kong dollar and Singapore dollar has been a part of Russia’s pivot towards Asian as tension with Europe and the US remain strained over Russia’s action in Ukraine.

Since Crimea voted to rejoin Russia, the US government has imposed Cold War era sanctions, which have hurt the Russian economy and have slowed lending and investment activity.

VTB, Russia’s second largest bank, intends to increase the amount of non-dollar settlements, according to the bank’s president Andrey Kostin.

In May, Russia’s biggest gas producer, Gazprom, announced it wants to start trading shares in Singapore, obtaining a listing as early as July, the company said. Just before that Russia’s state-owned gas giant inked a $400 billion gas deal with China.

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China signs currency swap worth 150 billion yuan with Switzerland
BEIJING | Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:36pm EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China signed a bilateral currency swap agreement worth 150 billion yuan ($24.17 billion) with the Swiss central bank, which can invest up to 15 billion yuan in China's bond market.

The three-year swap, signed on Monday, will "provide liquidity support for bilateral economic and trade exchanges and help maintain financial stability," the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement on its website, http://www.pbc.gov.cn.

The swap deal will provide liquidity support for development of the offshore yuan market in Switzerland and will be extended if needed, the PBOC said.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is allowed to invest up to 15 billion yuan in China's interbank bond market under a quota given by the PBOC. "The SNB's foreign exchange reserves can thereby be diversified even further," the Swiss central bank said in a statement.

In June, senior Swiss officials touted the SNB's qualifications to be a hub of renminbi trading during a meeting with China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

Competition is fierce among Europe's major financial centers to trade in China's currency. Frankfurt and Luxembourg are vying with London, the favorite of many analysts, and Switzerland is trying to muscle into the competition.

Analysts say London looks best placed to become Europe's main offshore yuan CNH= center, given its role as the world's biggest foreign-exchange hub.

In the past five years, China has promoted use of the yuan CNY=CFXS for trade and investment, and also as a reserve currency to help lower currency risks for Chinese companies and challenge the dollar's global dominance over the long term.

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...China’s foreign currency stockpile since 2011 is that the government of the world’s second-largest
economy is still heavily manipulating its currency, the yuan...

Quoted from joebxr

Yuan is ARTIFICALLY MANIPULATED by the Chinese government and undervalued...good luck with that one.
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat.....l-manipulating-yuan/

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Bilateral Local Currency Swap Agreement with the Bank of Korea

Today, the Reserve Bank of Australia signed a bilateral local currency swap agreement with the Bank of Korea. The agreement allows for the exchange of local currencies between the two central banks of up to A$5 billion or KRW 5 trillion. The effective period of the facility will be three years, and could be extended by mutual consent of both sides.
This agreement is designed to promote bilateral trade for the economic development of the two countries. In particular, the agreement will ensure that trade between the two countries can continue to be settled in local currency even in times of financial stress. The agreement can also be used for other, mutually agreed, purposes.
This agreement was signed today by Governor Choongsoo Kim and Governor Glenn Stevens in Sydney.

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Today, Bank Indonesia and the Bank of Korea established a bilateral local currency swap arrangement. The arrangement allows for the exchange of local currencies between the two central banks of up to KRW 10.7 trillion or IDR 115 trillion. The effective period of the facility will be three years, and could be extended by mutual consent of both sides.

This arrangement is designed to promote bilateral trade and further strengthen financial cooperation for the economic development of the two countries. In particular, the arrangement will also ensure the settlement of trade in local currency between the two countries even in times of financial stress to support regional financial stability.

This arrangement was signed today by Governor Agus D.W. Martowardojo and Governor Choongsoo Kim in Jakarta.

Quoted from CICERO

Luckily the US doesn't manipulate the dollar to weaken it in order to increase exports.
Interest rates are deliberately set at zero.  Not manipulation though - American exceptionalism!

Quoted from joebxr

Can you post the facts to support that?
Would like to read where the dollar is intentionally
weakened to increase exports; interest at Zero, etc.

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Like Rate Cuts, Unconventional Easing Weakens Dollar: Fed Study
Mon, 1 Apr '13 | 1:44 PM ET
Reuters

Source: Federal Reserve | Flickr

The Federal Reserve's unconventional efforts to ease monetary policy by buying large amounts of long-term securities weakens the dollar in the same way that conventional interest-rate cuts do, a study released Monday showed.
A cheaper dollar can boost the U.S. economy by making it easier to sell U.S. goods to other countries.
The fact that quantitative easing lowers the value of the dollar suggests one way that the Fed's newest policy tool may be helping the economy, the researchers said in the latest issue of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank's Economic Letter.
"Surprise unconventional policy easing has pushed down the value of the dollar roughly as much as similar surprise downward moves in the federal funds rate did before the crisis," wrote Reuven Glick, group vice president of research at the San Francisco Fed, and Sylvain Leduc, a vice president in the San Francisco Fed's research department.
To jumpstart the recovery, the Fed has undertaken three rounds of so-called quantitative easing since 2008, more than tripling its balance sheet to just over $3 trillion. It is currently buying $85 billion per month of mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries.
The two San Francisco Fed researchers looked at how the currency market responded to each of the Fed's asset-buying programs, as well as its announcement in December that it will keep rates near zero until the unemployment rate falls to at least 6.5 percent.
"We find that a quantitative easing surprise equivalent to a 1 percentage-point decrease in federal funds rate futures leads to a 0.5 percentage-point depreciation in the dollar," they said. "The size of this effect is comparable with the 0.7 percentage point depreciation following surprise movements in the federal funds rate before the financial crisis."
The finding that the Fed's large asset purchases have weakened the dollar will come as no surprise to critics of Fed policy in developing economies, where some politicians have accused the Fed and other major central banks of purposely devaluing their nations' currencies in a "beggar-thy-neighbor" approach to economic recovery.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has sought to counter such arguments, saying that a strong U.S. economy benefits rather than detracts from global growth.
The San Francisco Fed researchers stopped short of asserting that a weaker dollar stemming from the Fed's asset purchases has helped the U.S. economy as much as rate-cut driven dollar weakness before the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
"The recent boost to net exports from a weaker dollar may have been obscured by other factors, such as reductions in foreign demand stemming from uncertainty about Europe's economic recovery," the such as reductions in foreign demand stemming from uncertainty about Europe's economic recovery," they wrote.

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Although the Federal Reserve does not target the dollar, its announcements about
monetary policy changes can affect the dollar’s exchange value.

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Beware, Makers of Cake Mix and Almonds: Putin Going After US Foods
Russia plans to ban food imports from the US and other countries.
—By Patrick Caldwell and Dana Liebelson | Wed Aug. 6, 2014 4:40 PM EDT


After Ukrainian rebels used Russian missiles to shoot down a passenger airliner last month, the United States and the European Union escalated sanctions against Russia, cutting off Russian firms' and individuals' access to Western markets and western financing. Now Russian President Vladimir Putin is striking back—by taking aim at his people's ability to buy Western-produced food.

On Wednesday, Putin issued a new decree warning that he plans to ban or limit imports of food products and agricultural goods from the US and the EU. Putin didn't specify the exact products he wants to target; instead, he asked Russian government agencies to draft lists of products that should be limited or banned. (The Russian government has already reassured citizens that imports on wine and baby food are safe.)

Nevertheless, Russians and western ex-pats living in Russia are already venting their frustrations, The New Republic reports. "American whiskey, Dutch cheeses, German beer, Australian beef, Greek olives. Say bye-bye to all that," an independent Russian TV channel tweeted. Russia imports a wide range of American food and agricultural products—$1.3 billion worth in 2013 alone. Here's a list of some of the food and agricultural products that could be threatened by Putin's move:

Kale: According to the United Nation's commodity trade database, the United States exported to Russia in 2013 about 338,266 pounds of cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, and kale, both fresh and chilled, worth about $93,894.
Whiskey: Russia bought $85 million worth of various whiskeys from the US in 2013, per the UN's commodity trade database. "It is well known that Russians like to drink alcohol," the US Department of Agriculture noted in a report released last year. Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey are increasingly popular in Russia, according to the report. Russia's consumer protection agency recently announced that it was investigating Kentucky Gentleman bourbon due to fears that it contains chemicals that could produce infertility and cause cancer, and was already proceeding with plans to ban that specific brand in the country. (A spokesperson for the Sazerac Company said they had not been contacted by Russia's Rospotrebnadzor, and had no comment at this time.)
Fruit: Russia imports more apples and pears than any other country, according to USDA. Shipments from the US only constitute a small share of those imports—less than 1 percent of the total apple market in Russia—but that still amounted to $7.7 million worth of apples in 2012. "U.S. apples have a niche market in Russia as many consumers prefer the large and richly colored apples, which are characteristics that U.S. suppliers can normally provide," a USDA report said.
Almonds: In 2012, the United States supplied about 92 percent of the Russian almond market, USDA reported. In 2013, the US exported about $132 million worth of shelled almonds to Russia, according to the United Nations.
Cows: In 2012, Russia imported 74,734 bovine animals from the United States. "Russia was the second largest market for the U.S. breeding cattle exports (30 percent of total U.S. live cattle exports) after Canada during the first 8 months of 2013," the USDA reported.
Cake mix: In 2013, the United States exported about 2.2 million pounds of bread, pastry, biscuit mixes and dough worth $1,191,464 to Russia, according to the United Nations.
Soybeans: In 2013, US exported $157 million worth of soybeans to Russia.
Caviar: In 2013, the US exported $1,014,848 worth of preserved fish, fish eggs, and caviar to Russia.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/putin-russia-sanctions-us-food-agriculture