National currencies real alternatives to the US dollar amid sanctions: Rosneft CEO

Doha: The use of the US dollar as a sanctions instrument has limited its use in international trade, and national currencies, primarily the Chinese RMB, have become alternatives to it, Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said.

The abuse of sanctions and the use of the dollar as a sanctions tool limited its application scope in international trade and provoked the search for alternatives, which became national currencies, primarily the yuan," Sechin said at the Doha Forum.

The head of Rosneft, the country's largest oil firm, added that the "most universal and historically justified" was the return of gold as an instrument of guaranteed security of national currency systems, adding that according to the World Gold Council, the share of gold

in the world's foreign exchange reserves has grown by almost 8 percentage points and reached 20 per cent in the last three years alone.

"The only way to restore the dollar to its status as the world's currency is to stop using it and its conductive financial infrastructure as a sanctions tool," he stressed.

On the coming presidency of Donald Trump in the US, Sechin contended that if one analyses his programme, elements of which were presented during the election campaign, it becomes obvious that it involves quite adequate measures aimed at supporting the American economy by lowering taxes and rates, returning jobs in the real sector of economy, protecting national producers and the domestic market.

"It is not surprising that Canada, Mexico, China, Europe will have to suffer. After all, Donald Trump is the President of the United States, not Mexico, Canada or China, to which new duties will be applied amid the paralysis of the World Trade Organisation," he predicted.

Moreover, in order to reduce the cost of fuel on the American market, it is likely that all restrictions on production will be lifted, taxes will be reduced, administrative barriers will be removed and investments in the real sector will be redirected away from the illusory alternative energy," the Rosneft head added.

Sechin noted that the ways to restructure the US debt are being explored.

"According to Zoltan Pozsar, a well-known American analyst, the United States may try to impose a new financial system on the world, threatening to impose total duties on all imports. It involves converting the entire US state debt into Treasury bonds with a maturity in a hundred years and an interest rate far below today's parameters," he claimed.