Last month, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on a move by China that could take a first step toward dethroning the US dollar. The proposed launch of a gold-backed, yuan-denominated oil futures contract got a lot of attention in alt-media circles, but didn’t make much of a splash in the mainstream. But now the mainstream is sitting up and taking notice.
During an interview with Bloomberg TV Tuesday, Graticule Asset Management Asia CEO Adam Levinson said China rolling out a yuan-denominated oil contract within the next few months will be “a wake-up call” for investors who haven’t paid attention to the plans.
The move potentially creates a way for oil exporters to circumvent US dollar-denominated benchmarks by trading in yuan. The contracts will reportedly be priced in yuan, but convertible to gold.
Russia and China seem to be betting their monetary futures on gold. Their long-term maneuverings could seriously undermine the dominance of the US dollar and shift the world’s economic center of power from West to East.
Russia and China buy more gold than any other countries in the world, with Russia leading the way. Over the last decade, the the Central Bank of the Russian Federation has added more than 1,250 tons of gold to its reserves, according to the World Gold Council. At 1,700 tons, Russia’s has the sixth largest gold reserves in the world. Russian gold makes up about 17% of the nation’s wealth.
In 2016 alone, the Russian central bank purchased 201 tons of gold, far more than any other central bank in the world. The People’s Bank of China ranked second, adding 80 tons to its reserves.
