BRICS Expansion: IMF Considers It An “Initiative Worthy Of Support”

The International Monetary Fund has supported the expansion of the BRICS group to include six new states – Argentina, Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia, which are due to join the group on January 1, 2024. At a press conference on September 28, IMF Communications Director Julie Kozak said the expansion of BRICS, currently made up of five founding states – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – was “received very positively” by the Fund, because it would help “reduce the risks of fragmentation of the global economy.”

According to a recent IMF economic study, Kozak emphasized, if the alarming process of fragmentation of the global economy continues, this could lead to a drop in global GDP by 7%. This development is comparable to the exclusion of countries such as Germany or Japan from the international economy.

“As for BRICS and its New Development Bank,” Kozak said, “improving and expanding international cooperation, developing economic and trade ties, increasing investments between groups of countries – in our particular case it is BRICS – these are all processes that the International Monetary Fund supports and approves. They are aimed at reducing market fragmentation, increasing trade, cutting investment expenses, reducing trade costs.”