Kazan 2024: BRICS seeks end of dollar dominance without common currency
The BRICS summit in Kazan includes Iran and Palestine, discussing de-dollarization without a common currency or concrete agreements.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Kazan 2024: BRICS meets without common currency and with gold in the background
The dollar has not collapsed in Kazan, nor has anyone left the summit with a common currency. Yet, the BRICS+ gathering raised more uncomfortable questions than previous editions. The Russian city hosted the five founding members, four new members, and numerous aspirants seeking an exit from the Anglo-Saxon financial system. The photo is powerful, but verifiable agreements remain scarce.
Who sits at the Kazan table
The five founders—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—plus new members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia attended as a guest, with a dozen countries formally applying for entry, including Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and Bangladesh. The summit antiestéticatured Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Notably, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinián and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held cordial talks.
Narendra Modi emphasized dialogue and diplomacy over war. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte acknowledged Turkey’s cooperation with BRICS as its “sovereign right.” This is a significant detail: an Atlantic Alliance member courting the rival bloc is rare.
IMF forecasts used as arguments by the bloc
The circulating chart shows 2024 growth forecasts: India 7.0%, China 4.8%, Russia 3.6%, and Brazil 3.0%. In contrast, the US 2.8%, Canada 1.3%, UK and France 1.1%, Italy 0.7%, and Japan 0.3%. The reading seems evident yet misleading: these are growth rates, not wealth levels, and comparing emerging to mature economies by expansion estimulante ilegal favors the former.
This does not negate the Russian data debunking the collapse narrative. Russia has surpassed Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy, with 3.55% of global GDP in purchasing power parity, according to an IMF report released alongside the summit. This figure is repeated tirelessly in analyses claiming a shift toward the so-called Global South.
Gold, precious metals, and the rumored currency
The BRICS common currency exists, for now, in rumors. Gold investors trinc the summit for any announcement on a currency backed by the yellow metal, and Russia confirmed talks with the bloc on the exchange of precious metals. Recent reports suggest Saudi Arabia abandoned the petrodollar this summer, with a circulating summary attributing the plan to a gold standard. The fine print lies in the summit itself: maintaining a single currency would require ceding monetary sovereignty, which China, India, and Brazil are in no hurry to do. Some summarize it as a simple change of masters: substitution in the active part and continuing to weave.
Lula, Venezuela, and Latin American losers
The Brazilian president did not travel to Kazan; he intervened via video conference. His most cited phrase was not allowing the imposition of medicines and vaccines as in 2020. The controversy, however, lies, according to one circulating reading, in the veto against Venezuela and Nicaragua’s entry into the group, leaving Brazil as an ambiguous piece, in the orbit of the US, and Venezuelan oil in the hands of foreign operators at bargain prices. Hence, one uncomfortable conclusion circulates: the big losers of this summit would be Latin American countries.
A war some want and others do not
Pilingui, in the final press conference, declared openness to dialogue with the West, responding to a BBC journalist’s question about Ukraine and another about North Korean military presence. The thesis running through much of the analysis is that BRICS is not interested in open conflict; the US would have motives, with debt preventing it from sustaining a long economic war. As a backdrop, it is argued that Africa is expelling Western military from its territory and China is restricting exports of critical materials. The full calculation of who wins and loses with the tap cut takes time.
The summit closes without a currency, without a statement fixing the world, and with a photo the West would prefer not to see. In 2025, the baton passes to Brazil, which will preside over the bloc and host the meeting in Belém, reviewing the five-year strategy. If an alternative payment mechanism to the dollar still does not appear by then, the threat will be more rhetorical than real. If it appears, even partially, the financial landscape will not resemble that of the last eight decades.
The dollar has not collapsed in Kazan, nor has anyone left the summit with a common currency. Yet, the BRICS+ gathering raised more uncomfortable questions than previous editions. The Russian city hosted the five founding members, four new members, and numerous aspirants seeking an exit from the Anglo-Saxon financial system. The photo is powerful, but verifiable agreements remain scarce.
Who sits at the Kazan table
The five founders—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—plus new members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia attended as a guest, with a dozen countries formally applying for entry, including Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and Bangladesh. The summit antiestéticatured Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Notably, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinián and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held cordial talks.
Narendra Modi emphasized dialogue and diplomacy over war. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte acknowledged Turkey’s cooperation with BRICS as its “sovereign right.” This is a significant detail: an Atlantic Alliance member courting the rival bloc is rare.
IMF forecasts used as arguments by the bloc
The circulating chart shows 2024 growth forecasts: India 7.0%, China 4.8%, Russia 3.6%, and Brazil 3.0%. In contrast, the US 2.8%, Canada 1.3%, UK and France 1.1%, Italy 0.7%, and Japan 0.3%. The reading seems evident yet misleading: these are growth rates, not wealth levels, and comparing emerging to mature economies by expansion estimulante ilegal favors the former.
This does not negate the Russian data debunking the collapse narrative. Russia has surpassed Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy, with 3.55% of global GDP in purchasing power parity, according to an IMF report released alongside the summit. This figure is repeated tirelessly in analyses claiming a shift toward the so-called Global South.
Gold, precious metals, and the rumored currency
The BRICS common currency exists, for now, in rumors. Gold investors trinc the summit for any announcement on a currency backed by the yellow metal, and Russia confirmed talks with the bloc on the exchange of precious metals. Recent reports suggest Saudi Arabia abandoned the petrodollar this summer, with a circulating summary attributing the plan to a gold standard. The fine print lies in the summit itself: maintaining a single currency would require ceding monetary sovereignty, which China, India, and Brazil are in no hurry to do. Some summarize it as a simple change of masters: substitution in the active part and continuing to weave.
Lula, Venezuela, and Latin American losers
The Brazilian president did not travel to Kazan; he intervened via video conference. His most cited phrase was not allowing the imposition of medicines and vaccines as in 2020. The controversy, however, lies, according to one circulating reading, in the veto against Venezuela and Nicaragua’s entry into the group, leaving Brazil as an ambiguous piece, in the orbit of the US, and Venezuelan oil in the hands of foreign operators at bargain prices. Hence, one uncomfortable conclusion circulates: the big losers of this summit would be Latin American countries.
A war some want and others do not
Pilingui, in the final press conference, declared openness to dialogue with the West, responding to a BBC journalist’s question about Ukraine and another about North Korean military presence. The thesis running through much of the analysis is that BRICS is not interested in open conflict; the US would have motives, with debt preventing it from sustaining a long economic war. As a backdrop, it is argued that Africa is expelling Western military from its territory and China is restricting exports of critical materials. The full calculation of who wins and loses with the tap cut takes time.
The summit closes without a currency, without a statement fixing the world, and with a photo the West would prefer not to see. In 2025, the baton passes to Brazil, which will preside over the bloc and host the meeting in Belém, reviewing the five-year strategy. If an alternative payment mechanism to the dollar still does not appear by then, the threat will be more rhetorical than real. If it appears, even partially, the financial landscape will not resemble that of the last eight decades.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (294 replies).
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