Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva thinks BRICS countries should have a currency other than the US dollar for international trade.
Bloomberg reports that Lula spoke on the dollar while visiting the BRICS’ New Development Bank in Shanghai this week.
BRICS is an economic alliance, and the acronym stands for the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Says Lula,
“Why can’t an institution like the BRICS bank have a currency to finance trade relations between Brazil and China, between Brazil and all the other BRICS countries? Who decided that the dollar was the [trade] currency after the end of gold parity?”
Lula’s comments come amid recent reports that the BRICS countries are exploring how to create a new currency that could reduce the world’s dependence on the US dollar and the euro.
Fernando Haddad, Brazil’s minister of finance, says Brazil aims to conduct international trade without being bound to an unrelated currency.
“The advantage is to avoid the straitjacket imposed by necessarily having trade operations settled in a currency of a country not involved in the transaction.”
A number of additional nations, including Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey and Egypt, have reportedly expressed interest in joining the economic alliance.
The upcoming BRICS summit is set for August 22nd in South Africa.
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