Stop calling them BRICS. The group of countries that takes its name from the first letters of its five members (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will welcome six new countries. Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates join, as of January 1, 2024, the group of emerging countries that want to gain influence in the world.
Such an openness could allow them to carry more weight in an increasingly polarized international scene, in which Beijing and Moscow seek to form a counterbalance against the West. With money as leverage.
An alternative to the dollar
“This organization intends to acquire a new dimension and, above all, create instruments to offer alternatives to the global economic and financial system, in particular the role of the dollar,” Alexandre Kateb, economist and cabinet president explained to BFM Business on Friday. The Report about multipolarity.
Proof of this desire is “the inclusion of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates in this new enlarged entity. These are countries that have ‘deep pockets’ (ndr.) that can finance a new financial system based on a BRICS currency would allow, for example, with oil or gold”, explains Alexandre Kateb.
Catalyst
With a highly strategic objective: that oil is no longer quoted only in dollars.
“It is a catalyst,” confirms the economist, “and it has already started: Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with China to bill its oil exports in yuan. The Emirates have sent a first shipment of liquefied gas to China billed in yuan and we believe that today there is a whole movement to establish these relations in a much more multilateral framework”.
“Hence this idea of a BRICS reserve currency that is actually an exchange unit that will serve as the unit of account for all its transactions and will allow other countries that have debts with China to be included, such as Argentina,” explains the economist.
Source: BFM TV
