OREANDA-NEWS  US sanctions against Russia have intensified talk of abandoning settlements in dollars and switching to national currencies, but the process is still slow, there is no alternative to the US currency. This is stated in the Bloomberg material.

The publication admits that financial restrictions on the part of Washington and the freezing of Russian reserves have made many governments think. In particular, Brazil and China signed an agreement on settlements in national currencies, India and Malaysia agreed on payments in rupees, and China and France signed a deal on gas trade in yuan.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also announced its intention to intensify the use of its own currencies in regional trade. In turn, Brazilian President Lula da Silva called on the largest emerging economies to weaken the dollar's hegemony in foreign trade.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously agreed that sanctions increase the risk of switching to other currencies, but recalled that it would not be easy to find an alternative to the dollar. Data from the Bank for International Settlements indicate that 88 percent of all foreign currency transactions are carried out in dollars.