China struck a deal with Russia to expand a US$24 billion currency swap to help the ailing ruble, an agreement that highlights Beijing's growing clout as lender to the world's financially troubled nations.

The ruble on Tuesday traded 4.9% higher against the dollar, at 55.8, after a Hong Kong-based broadcaster quoted Chinese Trade Minister Gao Hucheng as saying the currency deal with Russia will help its battered currency.

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Russian regulators managed to ease pressure on the ruble, which gained 10 percent in the last 48 hours, but it is still the worst performing currency worldwide in the past six months.

Besides Russia, China has handed out $2.3 billion to cash-strapped Argentina since October as a currency boost and Beijing lent $4 billion to Venezuela last month, whose thinning reserves can only pay two years of debt financing.

Experts said China is growing its financial influence in the world's economy and challenging the International Monetary Fund as a go-to lender for nations in dire need of cash. While the Fund usualy seeks reforms to stabilize a nation's economy as a condition for loans, analysts said China's loan conditions might lie in securing vital supplies from resource-rich nations.

China has a $3.89 trillion dollar warchest, the world's biggest foreign-exchange reserves, which enables it to grant loans to friends and allies shut out of international capital markets.

In October, China and Russia signed a three-year currency-swap deal worth $24 billion, an agreement that enables Russia to borrow China's yuan and lend the the troubled ruble.

While the arrangement will hardly ease the biggest sources of pressure on the ruble, it could improve investors' segntiment in the country and help stop dollar capital from leaving the country.

The ruble has lost 41 percent of its value against the dollar this year due to low oil prices and Western sanctions linked to Russia's intervention in the Ukraine and Crimea.