Former IMF official tell Russian TV that the dollar is dangerous as it is weaponised against nations that do not bow to Washington’s dictates
The US dollar has become a dangerous currency, a former Brazilian representative at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., told RT in an interview at the outlet’s studio on Friday.
The economist highlighted that trust in the greenback as the global reserve currency has been steadily declining as more and more nations seek alternatives in what has become a major de-dollarization push.
“The dollar is a dangerous currency, let’s put it this way, see what happened to the Russian reserves,” Batista said, referring to the fact that some $300 billion worth of Moscow’s sovereign assets held in Western jurisdictions were frozen.
The former IMF executive director emphasized that the US “is the main enemy of the dollar” as it has been increasingly weaponizing its national currency, thus forcing an increasing number of nations to “seek alternatives to the Western financial system.”
Batista admitted that the greenback will remain “a very important currency,” but stressed that the use of the dollar as a weapon against countries seen as hostile to the West inevitably reduces confidence in it.
Speaking about the methods of coercion employed against “nations that are seen as hostile to the West and their interest,” Batista highlighted the role of the IMF, which, he believes does not function as a multilateral institution but rather as “as a political instrument largely of the West and the US.”
He pointed out that “Ukraine had received immense amounts of loans with no financial program and no solid economic program.” Meanwhile, nations whose policies are not in line with the West do not get access to the fund, citing Serbia as an example.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a plenary session of the 2024 Russian Energy Week International Forum in Moscow. © Sputnik / Grigory Sysoev
The BRICS member nations are jointly developing a payment and settlement framework to be used for trading within the bloc, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
”As part of cooperation with BRICS countries, we are working to create our own payment and settlement system,” he said.
According to the Russian leader, it will allow the member states to “create conditions for the effective and independent servicing of all foreign trade” amongst themselves. Russia had been switched off from the SWIFT international banking system as part of sweeping sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West over the Ukraine conflict.
Russia is already actively switching to the use of national currencies in trading with BRICS countries and “our partners are extremely interested in this,” he said.
The share of the ruble in the country’s foreign trade operations has increased almost threefold between 2021 and 2023, Putin stressed. In the first half of this year, it stood at 39.4%, he said.
As the current chairman of BRICS, Russia is hosting the bloc’s annual summit in Kazan from October 22 to 24. On January 1, 2024, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the UAE officially became new BRICS members, joining Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Earlier this month, the New York-based Nasdaq stock exchange warned in an article on its website that BRICS nations are looking to establish a new reserve currency backed by a basket of their respective currencies. A BRICS blockchain-based payment system is in the works, according to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov in March 2024. Known as the BRICS Bridge multisided payment platform, it would connect member states’ financial systems using payment gateways for settlements in central bank digital currencies.
Such a move “would likely significantly impact the US dollar, potentially leading to a decline in demand, or what’s known as de-dollarization. In turn, this would have implications for the US and global economies,” the article said.
Source X/NASDAQ/Coindesk/RT