It's was the type of story that flies under the radar of most world media, but has global impact potential. On January 20, Russia's central bank announced it had started buying Canadian dollars and securities in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves. Anticipating the move months in advance, a respected analyst said the Russian action could spell the start of a global trend to diversify. That's good news for some of the world's other currencies, like, in this case, the Canadian dollar, but bad news, for the world's uber currency, the U.S. dollar.
For decades, the people of the Soviet Union craved the dollar, a sign of stability and the prosperity they dreamed of in the West. Now the dollar is on the outs in most former Soviet states. It's just the latest sign of the dollar's creeping decline as currency numero uno, a leading economist has told the Informant. Russia, with the globe's third largest currency reserves at $443.7 billion, is already moving away from the dollar to a wider basket of currencies. Not coincidentally, Russia along with China have been leading the charge for a new world currency.
