Hungary – Russia’s Trade Representative to Hungary Nikolay Livencev said to the Hungarian magazine Figyelő that Hungary and Russia might use their own national currencies to trade. Also, a Russian-Hungarian airline could be created.
Nikolay Livencev, Russia’s Trade Representative to Hungary, told the Hungarian economic magazine Figyelő that Hungary and Russia are up to start negotiations to replace dollar based bilateral trade between the two countries with national currencies (HUF and RUB).
Livencev emphasized that in their view this accounting method would reduce risks in bilateral trade activities, and offer other benefits in the field of tourism, banking and the energy sector, the three main sector of mutual investment and trade between the two countries.
Hungarian Ambiance notes that forint and ruble based accounting methods could further expand the list of various financial instruments used in bilateral trade and would eliminate the conversion of local currencies into dollar or euro removing (dollar / euro) conversion losses – said the Russian Trade Representative.
The use of national currencies in bilateral trade is within the power of national governments emphasized Livencev. The Russian Federation is interested in this type of system deployment. In Moscow there is a high level support for such trade arrangement, as President Vladimir Putin said in a recent statement that the Russian Federation is ready to strengthen the role of national currencies in bilateral trade because their use reduce dependence on external economic fluctuations.
The Russian Trade Representative also said that prior consultations are taking place between the two countries to form a Russian-Hungarian Airline, a plan that the Russian side finds very interesting. “But at this stage it would be premature to speak about any result.” That being said, Hungary and the Russian regions continue expanding economic, cultural and tourism activities and it would be useful to have direct air link between those regions and Hungary using charter flights, underlines Hungarian Ambiance. Indeed, Russian are the main tourists in Hungary, which enjoys an excellent reputation in Russia.
The planned Russian-Hungarian airline would use Russian-made regional SSJ-100 aircrafts. Russian airline S7 already operates charter flights between Russia and Lake Balaton and Sármellék airports added the Russian representative.
Main source : Hungarian Ambiance