MOSCOW, August 03, /ITAR-TASS/. The Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan might adopt it’s a common currency unit, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper writes in its Monday issue.
The daily cites Bembya Khulkhachiyev, director of the Eurasian Economic Union’s financial policy department, as saying that the Union was planning to make a wider use of the national currencies of the three member states with an eye to create a common payment system. If these tasks are solved successfully, the issue of a common currency unit might be raised, he said.
Currently, the Eurasian Economic Union, according to Khulkhachiyev, makes 50% of internal settlements in roubles, 40% - in U.S. dollars, eight to nine percent - in euros. The share of other currencies barely reaches one percent.
Processes of financial integration within the Eurasian Economic Union “are especially important now that the European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions against Russia’s financial sector - Sberbank, VTB, VEB, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank,” the Rossiiskaya Gazeta notes.
The three countries signed a Eurasian Economic Union Treaty in May 2014. The Union is to supersede the Common Economic Space of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan on January 1, 2015. Two more countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, have announced their plans to join the Union.