He Coined The BRICS Acronym — Now He's Labeling Dollar-Killer Common Currency Idea By The Group As 'Ridiculous' And 'Infeasible'

Ahead of the upcoming 15th Brics summit, the creator of the Brics acronym, Lord Jim O'Neill, has labeled the idea of developing a common currency for the bloc as “ridiculous” and “unfeasible”. This statement comes as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are set to discuss the potential expansion of the group.

According to Financial Times, O'Neill, a former Goldman Sachs economist, dismissed calls from the Brazilian president and other politicians from the BRICS nations for a “trading currency”. He challenged the practicality of establishing a BRICS central bank, given the significant economic differences between the five countries.

"It's just ridiculous,” said O’Neill in response to the call for a common unit by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and others.

"They're going to create a Brics central bank? How would you do that? It's embarrassing almost,” said O’Neill, according to FT.

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Despite calls from Russia and China to challenge the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, South Africa, the host of this year’s summit, confirmed that a BRICS currency is not on the summit’s agenda. The idea of expansion, however, has emerged as another contentious issue among the group.

O'Neill, who is now a senior adviser at UK think-tank Chatham House, expressed skepticism about the bloc’s achievements beyond symbolic power. He did, however, acknowledge that the dominance of the dollar in the global financial system is not beneficial for emerging economies.

Despite the bloc’s collective population of over 3 billion and interest in increasing the use of local currencies in trading, Leslie Maasdorp, the chief financial officer of the New Development Bank (NDB), stated that the BRICS bloc is not in a position to create a common currency.

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