Iran “Fully” Shares Concept Of Single BRICS Currency

Brazil, China, and Russia, the three biggest proponents of a single BRICS currency, will gain an important ally. Iran, which along with five other countries – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, the UAE, and Ethiopia – will join this international association on January 1, 2024, expressed “full approval” of the idea of creating a special BRICS currency that could be used in bilateral and multilateral trade.

As Seyyed Ali Rouhani, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said in an interview with RIA Novosti on October 12, “Iran fully shares the idea of transitioning to a single currency within the framework of economic and trade exchanges between the BRICS countries. Iran is fully prepared for this.” According to Rouhani, adequate preparatory work will be required to avoid failure in this endeavor. “It is necessary to create a special extensive banking infrastructure, after which the BRICS member states will need to sign a number of currency agreements,” said a Tehran government representative.

However, the transition to the single BRICS currency will be long. “The launch of a special BRICS currency in the near future will be difficult to implement,” Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on August 3. In parallel with the preparatory work within the BRICS framework, the process of de-dollarization is gaining momentum. Michael Goddard, president of the investment brokerage company Netley Group, noted that “the abandonment of the mandatory use of the dollar in trade is becoming increasingly common not only in the BRICS countries, but also in the global economy as a whole.”