Foreign Minister of Belarus: It is not time yet to introduce common currency in EEU

ArmInfo. It is early for the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to speak of a common currency, says Vladimir Makey, Foreign Minister of Belarus.  

"We could say that everything is perfect and the Eurasian economic integration is developing. Certainly, the process is going on. But unfortunately, we think the process is not going so fast as we would like it to," RIA Novosti quotes Makey as saying. 

To recall, on August 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a draft Federal Law on Ratification of the Agreement on Cooperation in Organising an Integrated Currency Market in the CIS for consideration of the State Duma. The Russian President's website reported that the agreement contemplates direct access by the parties' resident banks to each other's domestic foreign exchange currency markets to conduct interbank FX transactions on terms more favourable than those offered to domestic commercial banks. This would help expand the use of national currencies in foreign trade payments and financial services and thus create preconditions for greater liquidity of domestic currency markets.

Meanwhile, AmRating Armenian Rating Agency analysts say that the single currency for the countries of the EEU may be introduced not earlier than in 2020. They think introduction of the single currency conditionally called altyn will become possible only after successful integration of the EEU counties and under compulsory condition of full liquidation of the so-called waivers.  The EEU countries are seriously concerned over the big countries' measures to protect the internal market through numerous waivers from the customs regime as well as over existence of numerous technical regulations impeding development of the common market. In addition, before creating a common monetary market, it is necessary to take measures to unify the taxation and monetary policies and bring the countries to a similar macroeconomic environment.