Kim Kyung-Hoon - Pool/Getty Images
- The Russian economy increased its dependence on China as the yuan becomes more prevalent.
- Russians bought 41.9 billion rubles worth of the yuan in March, the central bank said.
- That's more than triple the 11.6 billion rubles worth that was purchased in February.
The Russian economy is increasingly linked to China's as the yuan becomes more prominent amid Western sanctions on Moscow.
Russians bought 41.9 billion rubles worth of China's currency last month, more than triple the 11.6 billion rubles worth purchased in February, Russia's central bank said on Monday.
On Russia's foreign exchange markets, ruble-yuan trading accounted for 39% of total volumes, more than the ruble-dollar volume's share of 34%, the bank said, according to Reuters.
Earlier reports already showed that the yuan's trading volume in Russia had outpaced the dollar for the first time in February.
Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the renminbi was a minimally traded currency in the country. But the onslaught of Western sanctions to effectively cut Russia off from global markets has tied it closer to China.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the notion that his country was becoming dependent on China. But Chinese President Xi Jinping was able to secure beneficial trade agreements between the nations despite offering up little in return.
Meanwhile, the ruble recently fell to its lowest level against the dollar in a year as Russian energy export revenue plunged.
"There has been a temporary reduction in sales of foreign currency earnings by exporters, which led to an acceleration of the weakening of the ruble in early April," Russia's central bank said in a Monday report.
In response, sales of foreign currency increased in Russia.
Despite the declining presence of US dollars in Russia's economy, this is not a definite signal of a de-dollarized regime to come, analysts say, as China's yuan remains under tight controls.