China will 'compel' Saudis to trade oil in yuan, economist tells CNBC

By Sam Meredith
CNBC, New York
Wednesday, October 11, 2017

China will "compel" Saudi Arabia to trade oil in yuan and, when this happens, the rest of the oil market will follow suit and abandon the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, a leading economist told CNBC on Monday.

Carl Weinberg, chief economist and managing director at High Frequency Economics, said Beijing stands to become the most dominant global player in oil demand since China usurped the U.S. as the "biggest oil importer on the planet."

Saudi Arabia has "to pay attention to this because even as much as one or two years from now, Chinese demand will dwarf U.S. demand," Weinberg said.

"I believe that yuan pricing of oil is coming and as soon as the Saudis move to accept it -- as the Chinese will compel them to do -- then the rest of the oil market will move along with them." ...

When asked what it could mean for the dollar should the oil market move oil trade out of the U.S. currency and into the yuan, Weinberg said the world's transaction currency would suffer "lesser demand for U.S. securities across the board."

"Moving oil trade out of dollars into yuan will take right now between $600 billion and $800 billion worth of transactions out of the dollar. ... (That) means a stronger demand for things in China, whether it's securities or whether it's goods and services. It is a growth plus for China and that's why they want this to happen."

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/11/china-will-co...ia-to-trade-...

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