OREANDA-NEWSThe share of the dollar in China’s calculations for the delivery of goods and services from Russia for the first time fell below 50%, amounting to 45.7%, follows from the statistics of the Central Bank for the first quarter of 2019. In general, last year, the American currency accounted for 75.1% of the total payments for Russian exports. By the end of the year, the dollar began to take positions, but in the fourth quarter it accounted for more than half of the calculations - 54.5%.

Dollar cuts in the payment of Russian exports occurred in favor of not national currencies, but the euro. The share of the European currency grew tenfold over the year - from 0.7% in the first quarter of 2018 to 37.6% in the first quarter of 2019. Ruble settlements accounted for 9.6% of payments versus 6.8% for the same period of 2018, for other currencies, including the Chinese yuan, 7.1% versus 4.7%.

In general, in foreign trade of Russia and China (exports and imports of goods and services), the share of the dollar in the first quarter decreased dramatically, but still covered more than half of payments - 55.7% (or $ 14.7 billion out of a total turnover of $ 26, 4 billion), according to calculations of the Russian media based on data from the FCS and the Central Bank. Chinese imports Russia mostly still pays with dollars (66.5%).

The data show that in the first quarter of 2019, Russian exports of goods and services worth $ 6.3 billion were denominated in US dollars. But Russia only supplied crude oil to China for the same period at $ 7.84 billion, plus another $ 1.17 billion in petroleum products (totaling $ 9 billion in energy carriers). Thus, a significant part of the trade in oil and oil products with China is already going on not in dollars, but in other currencies.