Venezuela rejects the US dollar

Baku. 14 September. REPORT.AZ/ The government of this oil-rich but struggling country, looking for ways to circumvent US sanctions, is telling oil traders that it will no longer receive or send payments in dollars, Report informs citing The Wall Street Journal.

Oil traders who export Venezuelan crude or import oil products into the country have begun converting their invoices to euros. The state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, known as PdVSA, has told its private joint venture partners to open accounts in euros and to convert existing cash holdings into Europe's main currency, said one project partner.

"To fight against the economic blockade there will be a basket of currencies to liberate us from the dollar," Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who has been blacklisted by the US, said Friday.

The Venezuelan president has promised to switch the country's commerce away from the U.S. and to create a basket of currencies from Russia, China and India that would be offered to local companies to import goods under the country's system of currency controls.

"Managing euros seems like their second-best choice," said Mr. Garcia. "When they say they're moving over to rubles or yuan, that's just anti-imperialist rhetoric."