Russia talks up prospects of BRICS countries developing new currency

cointelegraph.com:

A new world order could be emerging as economic powerhouses increase their efforts to distance themselves from US dollar hegemony.

According to reports, a top Russian official has claimed that the BRICS alliance is working on creating its own currency. BRICS is an acronym for five leading emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

State Duma Deputy Chairman Alexander Babakov made the comments at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum event in New Delhi, India, according to local reports.

Babakov reportedly stressed the importance of both nations working towards a new medium for payments, adding that digital payments could be the most promising and viable.

He also said the currency could benefit China, other BRICS members, and not the West.

Babakov also reportedly postulated that the new currency would be secured by gold and other commodities such as rare-earth elements.

This week, former Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill called on the BRICS bloc to expand and challenge the dominance of the dollar. In a paper published in the Global Policy journal, he wrote “the U.S. dollar plays a far too dominant role in global finance.”

A BRICS currency is not a new concept. In 2019, Cointelegraph reported that members of the bloc were discussing the creation of a new digital currency for a unified payments system.

Related: 5 ways CBDCs could impact the global financial system

In a related development this week, China and Brazil reached a deal to trade in their own currencies. The move will remove the US dollar as the intermediary, further empowering both nations to distance themselves from the world’s reserve currency.

According to reports, the agreement will enable China and the biggest