More countries consider central bank digital currencies as part of their future financial trade infrastructure. Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Financial Markets Committee, expressed his belief. He stated that using CBDC for international trade settlements will become commonplace. He predicts this shift will occur within the next five years. This is even when few countries use these tools today.
SPIEF, or St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, evaluates Russia’s position within the global economic system. During this event, Aksakov explained that CBDCs would become standard for transactions. He noted that technological solutions for this were still unavailable.
He also offered insights about how Russia would use its upcoming the digital ruble, CBDC, as part of its trade exchanges with friendly countries.
Aksakov declared that he anticipates the digital ruble will likely be used for international payments as early as next year. He mentioned that the first settlements would occur, not in the first half of the year, but later on.
He also hinted that Sino-Russia exchanges could complete the first CBDC settlements. This is due to China’s advancements with its own CBDC, the digital yuan. Aksakov stated that both countries already have certain experience. Therefore, launching the process of settlements in digital currencies with China would be interesting. However, he also mentioned Belarus as one of the possible partners for these CBDC trades.
The digital yuan a part of the commodities trade has already debuted by China. The Mbridge project enables a system that facilitates CBDC exchanges between China and other partners. It enters the minimum viable product stage. Trade based on CBDC settlements might be coming earlier than expected.
