Increased payments for Russian imports in Chinese yuan under sanctions

Russian imports billed in Chinese yuan rose to 20 percent in 2022 from three percent a year ago, a banking study published on Wednesday showed, after its invasion of Ukraine triggered packages of sanctions that left the country unable to access the global financial system.

According to a study by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the sharp increase reflects a move away from conducting transactions in dollars and euros, in which payments fell during the same period to 67 percent from 80 percent.

According to the research paper prepared by economists Maxim Chupilkin and Beata Javorchik, “After the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the European Union, the United States, and a number of other advanced economies imposing economic sanctions, the Russian import bill has increasingly been paid in yuan.”

The paper’s authors said that yuan payments represented 63% of imports from China by the end of 2022, up from about the previous quarter.

The use of the Chinese yuan in trade with Russia has also increased for third countries that have not imposed economic sanctions but have a currency swap line with the People’s Bank of China, such as Mongolia and Tajikistan.