Speaking to the press after a meeting of the Russian Central Bank’s board of regulators, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina expressed her view that now was not the time to move toward a BRICS currency, but rather, toward the development of digital financial assets and settlements in existing national currencies.
“There are periodic proposals to accelerate the creation of some kind of single currency, but this is a very complex process. If you look at the single currencies of different countries—what history they have gone through, [it will be clear] what kind of harmonization and integration there should be in many areas of the economy and finance,” she said.
Nabiullina, whose primary task has been to maintainthe stability of the ruble, has been less enthusiastic about the creation of a new monetary system, and has been heavily criticized by economist Sergey Glazyev for her all-too-conservative stance on the matter.
During the BRICS Summit, President Vladimir Putin had shown her a copy of what was to be the BRICS currency. She said she did not like the version shown to her. “Well, first of all, we are still at a different technological level than having common paper cash. If we are going to talk about it, then we are going to talk about it in terms of digital financial assets and so on.”
In commenting on her remarks , Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that her dissatisfaction is connected with her concern about the national currency, since she “very jealously monitors our ruble.”