The ministry of external affairs on Saturday issued clarification on whether there had been discussion among the BRICS member nations over having a common currency.
“Three years ago, dollar and euro totaled 85% of settlements for Russian exports. The figure now stands at about 11%,” he said. He further added, “I would like to say that all these questions about trade in local currency and other payment system – the focus is how can we do more intra BRICS trade, and how we can engage with the global business community more actively, and reduce transaction costs. …These are and we are trying to develop bilaterally or within BRICS. He proposed a BRICS grain exchange, arguing that member countries were among the world’s leading producers and consumers of grain but still relied on price benchmarks set in other markets. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also urged BRICS countries to increase the use of national currencies for trade and take steps for greater economic integration to overcome the impact of sanctions that has intensified in recent months at the business forum.
Russian minister of economic development Maxim Reshetnikov, meanwhile, said Moscow was increasingly settling trade in local currencies. At the BRICS Business Forum on Friday, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal urged member nations and partner countries to “link our payment systems, trade, in each other’s local currencies.
