Economist Tatoul Manaseryan, Head of the Alternative Research Center, is convinced that the Armenian Prime Minister's proposal on the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) countries' switch to RUR settlements is quite substantiated and meets the national interests of Armenia.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the economist said that Armenia will benefit from trade in terms of Russian rubles. "Amid the dropping ruble, Armenia will benefit from buying raw materials from the ruble zone countries - Russia and other post-Soviet countries, as well as repaying loans in Russian rubles," he said. Manaseryan thinks that integration is an extremely hard process and it needs harmonization of not only the currency but also the tax and credit policy.
To note, Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan offers the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) countries to switch to RUR settlements when trading strategic goods without being bound by USD. The Armenian Prime Minister came out with this initiative during the Sept 8 meeting of the heads of the EEU member states' governments in Grodno, Belarus. "The EEU should take measures to intensify the mutual settlements in national currencies and to reduce dollarization. It is also necessary to exchange experience on coordinated macroeconomic policy. In this light, the idea of mutual trade in strategic goods in Russian rubles without being bound by USD is of much importance," said Abrahamyan.