Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said his country may move away from the US dollar and conduct its trade with China in renminbi and Malaysian ringgit, the Wall Street Journal reported. Razak made the remarks following a meeting Wednesday with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao. He expressed concerns that the US is financing its deficit by printing more money and thereby devaluing foreign countries’ US dollar holdings. Brazil is also examining the possibility of reducing dollar exposure by conducting trade with China in renminbi. Beijing has been encouraging the use of a basket of currencies for international trade settlement instead of using a single currency that is linked to one economy. It has also been talking about the use of the renminbi for trade settlement first in Asia and then eventually globally. However, analysists say it would take a long time for the renminbi to become sufficiently liberalized that it can be used as a global benchmark currency.
Categories