The Bank has claimed that Western trade restrictions have resulted in an increase in the use of the Chinese yuan at the expense of the greenback.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has warned that Russia's growing trade in the Chinese yuan as a response to Western sanctions could potentially erode the value of the US dollar.
The share of loans in mutual settlements between Moscow and Beijing has significantly shrunk in the past two years, official statistics show.
Beata Javorcik, a leading economist at the EBRD, told Bloomberg in a report published on Wednesday. The sanctions have also given impetus to countries to think about diversifying invoicing currencies, and long-term this could erode the dominance of the dollar, she said.
The report highlighted an academic paper, co-authored by Javorcik, revealing a growing trend of more countries utilizing the yuan. The countries had established trade lines with the People's Bank of China and did not participate in the sanctions against Russia.
The strong ties between the two nations have been highlighted by their shared commitment to implementing a substantial portion of transactions using their respective national currencies instead of the US dollar. The trade dispute between Russia and China has led Moscow and Beijing to intensify their attempts to decrease their dependence on the dollar and euro in global trade, particularly in response to Western sanctions imposed on Russia and the ongoing trade conflict between the US and China.
The de-dollarization of Russia-China trade is practically complete, said Georgy Zinoviev, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's First Asian Department. This month, he told RIA Novosti that the share of national currencies in Russian-Chinese payments is increasing rapidly and currently exceeding 80%.