MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) - There is little hope that any currency will replace the dollar as a reserve currency any time soon, a Russian analyst said on Tuesday.
Commenting on recent remarks by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who questioned the role of the dollar as a good store of value and said that it had "a high degree of risk," Natalya Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank, told RIA Novosti: "I believe that Stiglitz articulates the concerns that exist in many countries that hold significant gold and hard currency reserves, because the question of which currency should be used as a reserve currency is relevant like never before."
The dollar has lost 12 percent since March 5 against an index comprising the euro, the yen and four other major currencies.
Stiglitz, a Columbia University economics professor, said at a conference in Bangkok on Saturday that "there is a need for a global reserve system," and that support from countries such as China should ensure orderly discussions on a new reserve system.
Orlova warned that Stiglitz's remarks should not be read as a signal for switching from dollars to some other currency.
"That would take years and years," she said. "I believe he has just spelled out a trend that we will be observing for the next several years."
