Russia to invest in Canadian dollars

Yelena Fabrichnaya, Reuters
Published: Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Traders dump the U.S. dollar

MOSCOW -- Russia's Central Bank said on Wednesday it is preparing to invest some of its foreign exchange reserves in Canadian dollars to diversify its portfolio, which helped push the U.S. dollar to its lowest in over a year.

Moscow also continued its push for less reliance on the U.S. currency in international trade, saying on Wednesday that Brazil was interested in settling bilateral trade in roubles and real.

Russia has gradually been diversifying its US$400 billion-plus reserves -- the world's third largest -- to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar.

"Technical preparations are underway for operations with Canadian dollars. Then there could be a couple of other currencies and this will be it," Russian central bank official Sergei Shvetsov said.

Such a public affirmation from a major central bank on reserve diversification gave a dollar-bearish market a perfect excuse to sell the currency further, traders said.

The U.S. dollar accelerated its earlier losses to its weakest level since August against a basket of currencies and against the euro. The dollar index fell as low as 74.399 and the euro rose to $1.5096, according to Reuters data.

The Canadian dollar rose to a one-week high versus the greenback on the comments, which were in line with previous statements from Russian officials, but came on a day of broad-based U.S. dollar weakness.

The current share of the U.S. dollar is around 47%, with euros accounting for 41%, sterling for 10% and the yen for 2%.

Officials have said they would like to diversify further and include other currencies, but face liquidity constraints. Russia already has the mechanism to invest reserves in Swiss francs CHF, but the capacity of that market is limited.

Central bank's first deputy chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said in September that Canadian and Australian dollars could be added to reserves in the future.

Continuing the theme of less reliance on the U.S. currency, another Russian central bank official on Wednesday said Brazil is interested in settling bilateral trade with Russia in national currencies.

Moscow is already discussing trade in national currencies with China and India -- which with Russia and Brazil make up the BRIC group of emerging market states -- as well as other countries including Turkey and Vietnam.

"There was an initiative within the framework of the BRIC. These countries intend to create the conditions for direct payment for trade in national currencies," Alexander Potemkin, an advisor to the Russian central bank chairman, said.

"Brazil has expressed such an interest. India...is ready to discuss this issue," he added, speaking to the Duma lower house of parliament.

He estimated that settlements in yuan and rouble already account for around 2% of Russia's trade with China.


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