Brazil's Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said Wednesday in Johannesburg during the 15th BRICS Summit that Argentina might finance its foreign trade with his country by using Chinese yuan instead of US dollars, Agência Brasil reported.
The so-called “blue” (a euphemism for “black market”) dollar in Argentina broke another record Thursday and closed at AR$ 553, it was reported in Buenos Aires. In some provinces such as Buenos Aires and Santa Fe the quotation went up to AR$558, according to local media.
Luis Arce Catacora, president of Bolivia, a Mercosur associate nation that has long been trying to become a full member of the bloc, said Tuesday during the 62nd Summit in Puerto Iguazú (Argentina) that it was time we move[d] away from the [US] dollar to base ourselves on the [Chinese] yuan and strengthen our own currencies.
Argentine authorities Thursday announced that ”the payment of 2.7 billion dollars to the IMF corresponding to the second quarter will be made, partly in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of the Treasury and partly with yuan, without using Central Bank reserves.”
Argentina is increasing its use of Yuan to pay for imports from China, following the renewal and expansion of a currency swap agreement with Beijing. The use of the Chinese currency in bilateral trade amounted to 1.075 billion Yuan (US$ 150.5 million) in May this year. In the first ten business days of June, transactions worth 2.045 billion yuan ($286.3 million) were recorded, according to the Central Bank of Argentina Argentine Central Bank’s report on June 15.
IMF increased the Chinese Yuan's weighting in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency basket to 12.28% from 10.92% in its first regular review of the SDR valuation since the Chinese currency was first included in the basket in 2016, the Chinese central bank, PCB, reported on Sunday.
The Ukraine war which has impacted on Russian markets and particularly the plunge of the ruble, should not be a major cause of concern for China-Russia bilateral trade since a growing percentage of business is done with the Chinese currency Yuan, as the two countries move towards de-dollarization, according to financial circles in Beijing.
Following several currency swaps by which China has helped to support the Argentine central bank depleted international reserves, the administration of president Alberto Fernandez intensified relations with Beijing and a year ago allowed transactions between the two countries to be made in Yuan.
The Chinese yuan has taken third place among internationally-traded currencies in 2020, according to a Renmin University of China report released over the weekend, which also foresees it may continue to expand.
Argentina's central bank said on Thursday that it would allow a managed float of the peso currency and abandon its current uniform daily devaluation strategy as it seeks to adapt its monetary policy amid sharpening economic turmoil.