Employees of the Russian Central Bank urgently start learning Chinese

The Central Bank’s request for Chinese language courses appeared during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Russia, writes Kommersant. According to the project documentation, it is planned to train four groups of 4 to 8 employees each year, which does not seem large-scale against the background of 45,000 employees in the institution, but on the other hand, it will have a regular character every year, the publication specifies.

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According to HeadHunter, the demand for employees with knowledge of Chinese in the Russian financial sector has grown by 113% in a year. This is also confirmed by Superjob estimates, according to which the number of vacancies that require Chinese language skills has doubled in one year.

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After the imposition of sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine, Russia is gradually shifting its trade to Chinese yuan. According to Central Bank statistics, the yuan accounts for about 16% of payments for Russian exports. In imports, the share of the Chinese currency is 23%. That means yuan worth $7 billion enters Russia every month, of which $6 billion leaves the country to buy foreign goods, said Natalia Orlova, chief economist at Russia’s Alfa Bank. The share of the yuan in the operations of Russian business is also growing: it represents 37% of the trading turnover of the Moscow Exchange against 36% of the dollar (as of January 2023). By the end of 2023, the Chinese currency will become the main currency in Russia, a source close to the Kremlin told the Financial Times.