Introducing single currency of Eurasian Economic Union is inevitable: First Vice PM of Russia

First Vice Prime Minister of Russia Igor Shuvalov

Phasing in a single currency of the Eurasian Economic Union is inevitable, although the process could take five to ten years. First vice PM Igor Shuvalov said this last Friday at a meeting with participants of the international educational forum “Summer Campus of the Presidential Academy”, which the Republic of Tatarstan hosts.

“Five or ten years will pass and the issue of the single currency will definitely be solved, with issuing centers and the unified currency. We might have avoided this unless the ruble had not been crashed when the Soviet Union collapsed. We destroyed the single economic space and right now, being different countries, we’re creating this space,“ Shuvalov said. “The single currency will be discussed in professional circles,” he pointed out.

Besides, according to him, Russia should remain a member of the World Trade Organization.

“We should retain our WTO membership even if the role of the WTO decreases, and regional economic unions strengthen. The WTO helps Russia anyway. We need to learn how to use all available tools because old-time WTO member states know how to apply special protective measures, conduct anti-dumping investigations, which is a sealed book for Russia, but this is something that we’ll learn for sure," the first vice PM stressed.

banki.ru