While further progress is expected in the development of the group's own currency, non-dollar trade is growing between the BRICS countries that are also part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a grouping of Eurasian countries. As reported by Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dmitry Volvach, the share of payments in national currencies between SCO member countries is growing. increased from 40% in 2022 to 92% today.
A development that the official describes as significant, highlighting the way in which the member states of the organization carry out financial exchanges, without using the US dollar. Among them, China and Russia stand out, which since last year have been conducting bilateral trade using the Chinese yuan. Now, SCO exchanges are included, again with China, Russia, India and Iran as the main drivers. The SCO is an organization founded on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai, which initially included Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Over time, new countries have joined and currently the bloc brings together some 26 countriesbetween dialogue partners and observers, although the greatest strength of the group is exercised by the founding members, along with India and Pakistan. In this way, according to what the Russian official points out, the block of countries of the SCO joins the push for de-dollarization which is also supported by the members of BRICS, which is made up of most of the SCO countries, with Russia and China at the head. As BitcoinDynamic has reported, these two Asian giants are the ones making the greatest efforts for global de-dollarization, carrying out actions that are causing the dollar to lose strength as the main currency for international payments. This, in the context of sanctions applied to Russia for the conflict with Ukraine, and the trade war between China and the United States. As part of the plan, the initial actions of both regional blocs begin by removing the dollar from trade, using local currencies first. Although due to the difficulties that arise in this process, mainly due to problems with the exchange rates of the different currencies, The idea is to develop our own currency. This is a project that is already bearing its first fruits in the BRICS, after plans were announced last year to create a payment system of its own, related to with the cryptocurrency ecosystemIn this sense, they are advancing in the development of a stable currency. which will be called UNIT.
UNIT's ecosystem would be backed by the BRICS' gold reserves. Source: IMK Research. As explained by this media, the new currency will be linked to an underlying basket of reserves composed of 40% goldand 60% by BRICS currencies, participants convertible into gold. To this end, the BRICS have been accumulating tons of gold as part of their strategic reserves. And although more precise details about the new currency have not been officially reported so far, everything points to the new gold-backed money of the BRICS becoming a reality in the coming years. The new payment system would be complemented by the launch of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) by the member countries. A project that has already made considerable progress in China, India and Russia.