Dumping The Dollar? Russia Says It Supports Turkish Proposal Of Trading In National Currencies

The Kremlin yesterday (13 August) said that it supports the Turkish proposal of trading with all countries in their national currencies rather than the dollar but a procedure needs to be worked out in this regard before its implemented, Hareetz has reported.

The Turkish proposal comes as a reaction to the Lira sinking with respect to the dollar in recent months, falling to 7.24 to the dollar yesterday as opposed to just 3.54 a year ago.

The Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had announced that the country was preparing to begin trade with China, Russia and Ukraine in their national currencies as a response to the currency fluctuation.

A Kremlin spokesperson approved of the plan and said that Russia wanted such arrangements with all countries and that the issue had been discussed in several bilateral meetings between Turkey and Russia.

Meanwhile, Erdogan has blamed the falling Lira on a conspiracy rather than the country’s economic fundamentals. Turkey has announced that action will be initiated against 346 social media accounts for provoking the currency slide.

Earlier, when Iran faced stinging economic sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear program, it started accepting payments from India for its crude in Indian Rupees. The arrangement might be revived if similar sanctions are imposed on Iran again.