31.03.2022, Moscow.
The new unit of payment for payments with friendly countries is not only a relevant, but also a financial instrument from our Soviet past that worked well in practice for two decades, expert of the Russian Institute for Strategic Initiatives, doctor of economic sciences Mikhail Belyaev said in a comment for Rossa Primavera News Agency.
According to the economist, the introduction of a new international payment unit is not only possible, but “it is quite workable, proven by practice, which is just right in the context of growing financial sanctions of the West against Russia.”
“There was such an experience in history and it was called the transfer ruble. It functioned in the framework of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and was a supranational collective currency, created within the CMEA to service foreign economic relations,” said Belyaev.
The expert recalled that the CMEA countries (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance – Rossa Primavera News Agency) created the International Bank for Economic Cooperation, which issued a transfer ruble and served all the calculations between them.
“This currency was only for non-cash payments. It was virtual, as we would say now. It performed all the functions inherent in money, especially international, collective money. It allowed payments, it even provided loans and more flexibility in the payments within the CMEA,” said the expert.
He also noted that the transfer ruble had been used since the mid-sixties until 1987. “It was not even an experiment, but quite a working unit. Towards the end of this stage there was organized another bank, the International Investment Bank, which has specialized in long-term lending and investment activities, and it, too, all the calculations were performed in rubles,” said the economist.
In addition, according to Mikhail Belyaev, the scope of the transfer ruble has been constantly expanding. According to him, “at different times Finland, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Angola, Vietnam joined the payments and a number of other countries were preparing to join it” and besides “the ground has been prepared to make the transfer ruble convertible.
But all these plans were nullified overnight, when “perestroika took place, and the whole system was dismantled.” In other words, the system, which had proved its viability, was destroyed for purely political reasons.
“So the idea is perfectly timely, the idea is perfectly workable. And if it takes into account the experience of the past and improves it, it is quite a promising option, which can be welcomed,” the expert concluded.
Earlier, economists from the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (CMACP) made a proposal to create in Russia a new unit of payment for payments with friendly countries.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
