EDB offers EAEU to create regional unit of account

MOSCOW. KAZINFORM - The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) offered the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to create a regional unit of account, Director of the EDB Center for Integration Studies Yevgeny Vinokurov said as quoted by the Izvestia newspaper, BelTA has learned. 

"We offer the monetary authorities to adopt a number of mainly long-term instruments. A regional unit of account is one of them. This is not meant to be a single currency but an instrument to facilitate settlements between the EAEU member states," he noted.

The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) has not yet discussed the introduction of a unit of account with the EAEU members. The EEC admits, however, that this measure would contribute to the effective currency risk management and reduce transaction costs of settlements within the EAEU.

The EDB substantiates the idea to create the regional unit of account by the existing practice of settlements in U.S. dollars between the EAEU member states (except for settlements with Russia, which are made in Russian rubles). The EDB cited the European Currency Unit (ECU) as an example of a single unit of account. ECU was used as the unit of account of the European Community from 1979 to 1998 alongside national currencies.

A unit of account can be used as an alternative to a single EAEU currency. In July 2017, the central banks of the EAEU member states agreed agreed to postpone the topic of a single currency till 2025, Kazinform has learnt from BelTA .