China's Q1 foreign trade with other BRICS nations surges
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The meeting saw the Brazilian Development Bank, Russia's State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs, Export-Import Bank of India, China Development Bank (CDB), and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, agree to use their own currencies instead of the U.S. dollar in issuing credit or grants to each other.
Experts claim the agreement will boost trade and cooperation among the BRICS nations, and also diversify the global monetary system which currently is dominated by the U.S. dollar.
CDB president Chen Yuan said the agreement will facilitate foreign trade and investment among the five countries and help promote a "diversified development of the global monetary system."
Chen also noted the banks would discuss the ways and patterns of expanding local currency credits in order to build a more open and efficient financial service system within the framework of BRICS countries' inter-bank cooperation mechanism.
Zuo Xiaolei, chief economist for Galaxy Securities, told Xinhua, "With the expanding use of local currencies for trade settlement, this would further boost trade among the BRICS nations, and raise BRICS' global standing around the world," Zuo said.
The five economies have around 40 percent of the world's total population, with their combined gross domestic product (GDP) accounting for 18 percent of global GDP in 2010 while their trade volume took up 15 percent of the world's total last year.
During the summit meeting, the leaders said they supported the reform and improvement of the international monetary system and welcomed the current discussion about the role of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) in the existing international monetary system.
They also reiterated the governing structure of the international financial institutions should increase the voice and representation of emerging economies and developing countries.
Zuo said the recent high flow of U.S. dollars onto the market has created excessive global liquidity, which has caused global commodity prices to soar and higher inflation. Further, the volatile U.S. dollar is having a negative impact on international trade.
"The international monetary system dominated by the U.S. dollar as a world reserve currency needs to be reformed," Zuo said.
As full convertibility and free-floatig are the two standards set by the developed world as a ticket to be included in the basket of currencies that forms the SDR, Zuo said with the increasing profile and influence of the BRICS, they perhaps could have a bigger say in setting the rules in the future.
"The BRICS as a group have common interests. They could jointly express a common will and create an important voice in the international arena," Zuo said.
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