India has reaffirmed its opposition to the idea of a single BRICS currency, emphasising a focus on strengthening trade in local currencies and rejecting de-dollarisation at the bloc’s recent trade and industry meeting.
India does not support the idea of a BRICS currency and is opposed to any move to create one, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday after a two-day meeting of BRICS trade and industry ministers in Jaipur. Goyal said the bloc was discussing ways to strengthen balanced trade and investment among members, along with easier and more adequate financing for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
The minister’s remarks underline a long-running Indian caution over any common BRICS money, even as some members have pressed for greater use of local currencies in trade. BRICS now includes 11 major emerging and developing economies: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
India’s position also echoes comments made last year by the Ministry of External Affairs, which said de-dollarisation was not part of New Delhi’s financial agenda. That statement came after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva floated the idea of a BRICS trade currency amid growing friction with the United States over tariffs.
The broader debate has continued inside the bloc, but not all of it points in the same direction. In February, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said BRICS was not planning a single common currency and was instead looking at expanding the use of national currencies in trade and investment, partly to make transactions less exposed to sanctions and other coercive measures. Earlier, in August 2023, Indian officials had likewise said the bloc was not focused on a shared currency and was concentrating instead on settling more trade in members’ own currencies.
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