MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The US dollar still “all mighty” for some time to come

Questioning the greenback as global currency is cooling down.

The dollar has risen after Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin said it would not be replaced as the world's reserve currency in the near future. Earlier in the week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan had both questioned the dollar's status.

President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan had both questioned the dollar's status.

They had said it was time to consider an alternative benchmark currency for international debt.

But Mr Kudrin said “it's too early to speak of an alternative”.

His remarks came ahead of a summit of leaders of Russia, China, India and Brazil on Wednesday in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

A Kremlin spokesman said on Sunday that the summit would not be discussing the possibility of a new global reserve currency.

“We will speak more about the possible ways to reform international financial institutions,” he said.

Not so long ago Chinese officials have publicly stated that they trust “United States will honour its debts”. China holds well over a trillion dollars in US federal bonds.

A couple of weeks ago US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was in China precisely to ensure the US will respond for those assets.