Friday, April 3 2015 17:40
Timur Suleymanov: It is not realistic to introduce a single currency in EEU within next 5 years
ArmInfo. It is not realistic to introduce a single currency in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) within the next 5 years for absolutely pragmatic reasons, Timur Suleymanov, Minister of Economy and Financial Policy of the Eurasian Economic Commission, said at today's press conference at the Central Bank of Armenia. He said that it is impossible to build a currency union within 5 years.
"No decision has been taken. The presidents of the EEU member states clearly said that now only Russia is considering the theoretical possibility, to be more precise, the expediency of creation of the currency union. First of all, a group of specialists of the Russian Central Bank and the Russian Government will consider all the pros and contras; afterwards they will present the relevant proposals to the Russian President. If the President finds them reasonable, he will submit them to the presidents of the other EEU member states. All the decisions are taken on the basis of a consensus. This means that each country is given an opportunity to express its own readiness degree to move in the given direction", said Suleymanov.
For his part, Armenak Darbinyan, member of the CBA Council, stressed that at the initial stage of EEU establishment it is unrealistic to introduce a single currency. "Before raising the issue of single currency within the EEU, it is necessary to pass a long process of integration implying various stages. In particular, it is necessary to create a full-fledged single customs union, a full-fledged single market and a full-fledged economic union. "If we look at the EU, we will see that the problems emerged because the single currency was introduced before harmonization and integration of the fiscal policies of the member states. In order to avoid similar problems in the EEU, we need to pass a long path of integration and harmonization and then to create a single currency union", he said.
To note, on March 10, Vladimir Putin charged the Central Bank of Russia and the Cabinet of Ministers to settle the issue of the EEU currency integration and study the possible creation of a currency union in the future. "It's time to think about the prospects of creating a currency union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan", Russian President Vladimir Putin said. "We think the time has come to talk about the possibility to form a currency union in the future," Putin said Friday at a meeting with his Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts Nursultan Nazarbaev and Aleksandr Lukashenko in Astana. The documents on establishment of a Eurasian Central Bank with a switch to a single currency by 2025 were signed in Kazakhstan in 2014. To recall, on 2 January 2015, Armenia became an EEU full member. On 10 October 2014, Armenia signed the relevant agreement in Minsk. In 2015 Kyrgyzstan may also join the EEU. It signed the relevant agreement in late December 2014.
Expert on Armenia`s international trade growth against "miserable trade pattern" 
Expert: Armenia should use Georgian, Turkish transit opportunities
Gevorg Mantashyan: High-Tech Ministry makes consistent efforts for emergence and progress of startups in Armenia
Bank of Georgia announces proposed acquisition of Ameriabank for $303.6 million