De-dollarization strategic necessity: Putin

Russian President Putin said de-dollarization and boosting trade settlements in national currencies between members of the BRICS group is a strategic necessity

Moscow: De-dollarization or shifting from the US dollar would strengthen financial independence and reduce geopolitical risks, Russian President Vladimir Putin said ahead of the BRICS Summit 2024.

Putin also said that boosting trade settlements in national currencies between members of the BRICS group is a strategic necessity.

Russia is currently hosting the 16th annual BRICS Summit in the City of Kazan. The group comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, as well as new members Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE, which joined in January.

"Use of local currencies instead of the dollar or euro helps to keep economic development free from politics as far as possible in the context of today’s world", Putin said Tuesday as reported by Russia Today.

Putin in the last month said that Russia was already actively switching to the use of national currencies in cross-border trade with its BRICS partners, and that the group’s members were jointly developing a payment and settlement framework to be used in trading.

In August, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that over 95% of mutual settlements between Russia and its biggest trading partner, China, are carried out using the ruble or yuan.

Speaking with the BRICS Summit 2023, Putin had said days of US dollar’s trade in world trade are numbered and switching to the national currencies of respective countries will be a reality soon.

Putin's latest emphasis on de-dollarisation Tuesday in the presence of President of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), Dilma Rousseff.

Headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB or New Development Bank was founded in July 2015 by the BRICS countries to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the bloc and other emerging markets.

The BRICS development bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement are seen as a counterweight to the Western-dominated financial organisations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

A top Zimbabwean academics had in the last week said the BRICS bank is fairer and better option than the IMF.

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