MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the United States started to impose trade restrictions on China because the Chinese economy is more efficient.
"With a high degree of certainty, I can say that this unique process [of Chinese economic development] has led to very good results. The aggregate performance of the Chinese economy is a lot more efficient that of other major economies, including the American one," Putin told the VTB Capital Investment Forum "Russia Calling!" on Wednesday.
"I think that to a major extent, this causes concern of our US friends and explains the restrictions imposed on China," Putin said, adding that the US sanctions were a result of "this fact, not of the disparity in the trade balance."
"The fundamental resilience of the Chinese economy is evident," the Russian leader continued, describing the Chinese economy as a "unique symbiosis between the centralized planning and the market economy."
"The world hasn’t seen anything of this kind," he added.
Putin also said that the Chinese currency "has been gaining the position it deserves on the global financial market," adding that Russia and China were planning to increase the use of national currencies in bilateral transactions.
"We are now working very actively on that at the level of finance ministries and central banks," he continued. "The amount of transactions in national currencies is currently small, but it is growing. I hope that this amount would increase at a faster pace than the one we have today. We have all grounds to believe that this is what will happen.".