SWIFT: Dollar Not Giving Up

The struggle of the BRICS countries against dollar hegemony will be difficult. This is evidenced by the results of international settlements for 2023 that were just published by analysts at SWIFT, the global system for the exchange of interbank and financial information (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication – SWIFT).

“In July 2023, the share of the US dollar in the global payment structure increased from the previous average of 42% to a record 46.46%,” SWIFT experts said. On the other hand, the euro is losing ground: after “controlling” 31.25% of all transactions in June 2023, the share of the single currency of 20 European countries collapsed to 24.42% the following month. “This is the lowest figure in the entire history of analyses conducted by SWIFT,” analysts of the interbank system emphasized.

The British pound sterling closes the top three most used currencies in the world with the share in international settlements rising to 7.63% at the end of July against 6.88% a month earlier. The shares of the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan amounted to 3.51% and 3.06%, respectively.

CEO of the New Development Bank (NDB) Leslie Maasdorp, the lending institution of the five BRICS countries, said earlier that “despite the plans of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to dramatically increase the share of mutual settlements denominated in national currencies, the dollar will still will remain the main currency of settlements between the countries of the group. The situation will not change even in the foreseeable future. The US currency will remain ‘programmed into the bank’s DNA.’”