Moscow and New Delhi will switch to trading in domestic currencies in three years, the chairman of Russia's largest state development bank said on Thursday. "With China it took us three years to (evolve) from initial conversations to trading in local currencies," VEB Chairman Vladimir Dmitriev told reporters on the sidelines of the BRICS summit of emerging world powerhouses - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
"I think we will meet similar terms with India," he said. The announcement comes hours before the emerging economies, which are trying to bolster their global influence to reflect their growing economic clout, are expected to sign an agreement to exchange loans in national currencies.
The agreement will be to use bill of credit as its key instrument, Dmitriev said, a form in which "partners trust each other". Dmitriev said Russia was considering to switch to trading in local currencies with other BRICS partners, which could take some time because of certain technical conditions. "Switching to national currencies has a lot of technical conditions to be complied by each country," he said. "We will also have to synchronise national banking legislations (to make trade functional)."