Vladimir Putin said Monday that the dominance of the dollar was a threat to global markets and the United States was "a parasite", reports Reuters.

The Russian Prime Minister was talking to a Kremlin youth group while touring its summer camp north of Moscow.

"They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy," Putin said.

"They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar."

Putin later conceded that a default would have been a problem for the world economy, adding it would be "no good at all", reports RIA Novesti.