BRICS: Summit Focuses on Reducing Dollar Dependence

At the current meeting in Johannesburg, the leaders of the BRICS countries will talk about ways to become less dependent on the U.S. dollar.

Bloomberg says that the primary goal of the BRICS meeting is to become less dependent on the U.S. dollar. The bloc will discuss ways to do foreign business with fewer U.S. dollars and more local currencies.

BRICS Summit Priorities: Reducing Dollar Dependence

Paul Mashatile, the Vice President of South Africa, said that the meeting would start discussing how to stop being so dependent on the U.S. dollar. He said, “Today, the world takes notice of this bloc because it’s at the forefront of the global discourse to reduce dependence on the dollar.”

But he added that BRICS will not fight with the U.S. dollar and the West. Instead, it will create a level playing field. “We are not here to compete with the West. We want our space in global business,” he said to business leaders ahead of the summit.

In June, BNP Paribas S.A. said the time is better than ever to weaken the U.S. dollar. It also noted that the dollar would lose its position even if the process were “a slow, incremental burn.”

“I want to do business with India. “Why should I use dollars?” asked Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president of Nigeria, to a rousing applause. He said, “It’s a payment and settlement system that will allow me to buy whatever I want to buy in India, whatever I want to buy in Brazil, without looking for dollars.”

So, the BRICS Union is committed to putting their currencies first to help their economies grow. Other developing countries are doing the same thing, and the dollar may no longer be used for international trade. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are the countries that make up the BRICS group.