Russian oligarch Deripaska predicts default of U.S economy
America is heading for default, according to Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire and a key shareholder of the holding companies En+ and the Gaz Group.
According to the businessman, the impending default of the world's largest economy is evidenced by the "fall in popularity of the dollar."
"The dollar is still the world's top reserve currency, but its popularity has already fallen to its lowest level since January," Deripaska wrote on his Telegram channel.
The billionaire referred to the article of the Financial Times, which cites the data of the International Monetary Fund showing that 59% of the gold and foreign currency reserves of the world's central banks are invested in the dollar - the minimum for 25 years and which is 12 percentage points lower than the maximum shown at the end of 1999.
"The role of the dollar is declining thanks to sanctions!" writes Deripaska and adds: "Let's watch as America moves towards default."
In the past, Russia's richest man, who made a fortune in the bloody chaos of the 1990s and then lost it, falling under U.S. sanctions, Deripaska repeated the words of President Vladimir Putin, who for several years predicted the collapse of the American currency and economy.
Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 6, Putin said that the U.S. authorities “are sawing off the branch they are sitting on. And soon they will crash to the ground,".
According to Putin, sanctions banning dollar payments, such as those imposed on Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela, Putin said, "undermine confidence in the dollar" and deprive it of its former status.
Putin voiced the same talking points in October 2019, noting that the use of the dollar as a political weapon is a "major political mistake" of the American administration.
“They started to cut the branch on which they are sitting, and soon they will crash," the president said at the time.
Earlier, Putin criticized the monopoly position of the dollar, which, according to him, allows the U.S. to "parasitize" on the world economy and live beyond its means.
According to IMF statistics, although the dollar's share in the world’s bank reserves is declining the volume of investments in the US currency is growing.
Last year, the world’s central banks bought $235 billion and brought their balance sheet to a record $7.005 trillion.
The dollar's share in the Russian Central Bank’s foreign currency reserves fell from 60.72% to 59.02%. However, it is still almost three times higher than the share of the second most popular currency - the euro (21.24%).