Sanctions on Russia could eat away at the dollar's global dominance and boost the use of crypto, IMF says
- Sanctions on Russia could end up eroding the dominance of the US dollar, a top IMF official told the FT.
- Some countries are already renegotiating the currency they are paid in for international trade, Gita Gopinath said.
The sanctions placed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine could erode the dominance of the US dollar and spur the adoption of digital currencies, according to a top IMF official.
Stringent Western financial sanctions have frozen much of Russia's foreign assets and hit its ability to trade. While that has underlined the dollar's power as the dominant global reserve currency, it has also been a wake-up call for countries about relying on it too heavily.
Gita Gopinath, first deputy managing director at the IMF, said there are signs some countries are already renegotiating the currency they are paid in for international trade.
"The dollar would remain the major global currency even in that landscape, but fragmentation at a smaller level is certainly quite possible," Gopinath told the Financial Times in an interview published Thursday.
Small currency blocs between some trade partners are starting to emerge, she added.
As countries accumulate reserves in the currencies they use for trade, these will take on a bigger role, which will dilute the dominance of the dollar.
The US currency's clout has already waned over the last two decades, and its share of international reserves has fallen from 70% to 60%, according to the IMF official. Australia's dollar and China's yuan, in particular, have made inroads as trading currencies.
More than 70 central banks hold some yuan as a reserve currency, and many African countries and some in the Middle East regularly use the Chinese currency for transactions, according to Baizhu Chen, professor of clinical finance and business economics at the University of Southern California.
"Some countries feel their economies could be held hostage to US policies because the dollar is dominant, and countries want to diversify their risk," Chen told Insider recently.
The US and its allies blocked Russia from using SWIFT, a global communications service that clears international financial transactions — effectively shutting it out of international trade. The US also froze $630 billion in assets held in international reserves by Russia's central bank.
Russia now demands payment in its currency the ruble for natural gas exports, and a top lawmaker said on Wednesday the ruble should be required for more commodities. Another Russian lawmaker has suggested buyers from countries friendly to Russia could pay in their own fiat currencies — or in bitcoin.
Gopinath said the impact of the Ukraine conflict should also spur the adoption of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins globally. But she warned there is a lack of regulation around digital currencies that needs to be tackled first.
"All of these will get even greater attention following the recent episodes, which draws us to the question of international regulation," she said.