Russian President Dimitry Medvedev supports the idea of replacing the dollar and euro as reserve currencies with a basket of currencies.
“This is a topic which is of concern to us … because the whole world is dependent on the health of the dollar,” he told CNBC in an interview.
“Despite the other currencies, such as the euro, British pound and yen, much depends of course on the health of the dollar.”
Chinese officials have called for IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) to supplant the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
“We have our own point of view on this, which I outlined already a year ago,” Medvedev says.
“My idea is that at the moment the world needs a larger number of reserve currencies, and it isn’t because the dollar is bad or the euro is not sufficient.”
“The situation is that the current environment requires that we need to have more reserve currencies where people could be investing, where banks could be investing and to which the states could be investing,” Medvedev says.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says China actually supports the dollar’s role as the world’s primary currency.
“I believe the Chinese expect the dollar to be the principal reserve currency for a long period of time, as do we," Geithner told reporters after meeting with Chinese officials this week.
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