U.S. Treasury to urge moves to shield developing economies from war impacts -Adeyemo

4:12 pm Monday, April 18th, 2022

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Treasury this week will call on international policymakers to take steps to mitigate the impact from Russia’s war in Ukraine on developing economies, which are paying high costs through increased food and energy prices, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on Monday.

“We must not allow Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to further burden countries still struggling to deal with a global pandemic,” Adeyemo said in remarks to a virtual event hosted by the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics think tank.

Adeyemo said that the coalition of more than 30 countries supporting sanctions against Russia would continue to ratchet up pressure on Moscow.

“As long as Russia’s invasion continues, our sanctions will continue. Even as we continue to pursue rigorous financial sanctions against Russia and its key financial institutions, the next phase of our work will be to take apart Russia’s war machine, piece by piece, by disrupting their military industrial complex and its supply chains.”

China is outside of that coalition, but is continuing to comply with the sanctions now in place, “for the same basic reason of China’s business with the rest of the world is far greater than its business with Russia,” Adeyemo said.

But Treasury is calling on China to press Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine because China values sovereignty and economic stability, Adeyemo said.

Asked about whether sanctions on Russia will drive some major economies to find substitutes for the dollar, he said he expected the dollar to remain the world’s reserve currency as long as the United States continues to invest in its future and maintains a dynamic economy that attracts investment.

He emphasized the multilateral approach to the Russia sanctions was important for the dollar, as the coalition of partners supporting them includes nearly every major convertible currency in the world.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Andrea Ricci)