Leaders of the BRICS nations will focus on ways to reduce dependence on the US dollar when they meet starting Tuesday, South Africa said. The rand advanced after the bloc’s bank agreed to lend $1 billion to a state-owned company.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will also discuss enlarging the group of major emerging market powers at the Aug. 22-24 leaders’ summit. While the dollar’s demise has been mooted many times in recent years, so far other pretenders have been competing among themselves and there’s no conclusive evidence for a structural dollar decline.
Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t attending, avoiding an international arrest warrant over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. China, backed by Russia and South Africa, has been pushing for new members to be admitted to the alliance, an expansion that some BRICS countries say will help position it as a counterweight to the Group of Seven.
Leaders from around the developing world have begun arriving in Johannesburg for the 15th annual BRICS summit. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Democratic Republic of Congo Prime Minister Sama Lukonde and Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera were among those to land on Tuesday.
The rand leads gains among emerging-market peers Tuesday bolstered by fresh investments into South Africa’s economy, including a $1 billion loan from the BRICS New Development Bank to state-owned rail utility Transnet. Other BRICS currencies were mixed with the rupee showing a slight gain, while China’s yuan and Russia’s ruble were both weakening.
Lula is meeting representatives from South Africa’s governing African National Congress before the BRICS summit kicks off later on Tuesday. He’s pushing for BRICS expansion, wants the bloc to eventually form its own joint currency and has suggested the bloc be involved in Russia-Ukraine diplomacy.
