Yuan could be new world reserve currency: Russia's Fin min

I / St Petersburg June 6, 2009, 17:01 IST

Though new reserve systems to replace the US dollar may not appear in the world in the foreseeable future, China's yuan could become a reserve currency in about ten years, Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said.

Kudrin said this while delivering a lecture titled "Post-crisis financial architecture" at a programme organised by the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"I do not think new big currency alliances will emerge in the near future. But if China liberalises its economy and wishes to ensure convertibility of the yuan, it will be the shortest way.

I believe this could take ten years, but after that the yuan will be in demand, and this is the shortest way to the creation of a new world reserve currency," Kudrin said.