Russia aims to become the first country in the BRICS group of leading emerging economies to ratify an agreement on the foreign currency reserve pool, according to Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Vadim Lukov.
“An agreement will be
ratified soon on establishing a pool of foreign currency reserves. Russia will most
likely be the first country to do this,” Lukov said on
Friday.
South Africa will
contribute $5 billion, Russia, India and Brazil will allocate $18
billion each while China will provide the remaining funds,
according to the envoy.
The goal of the pool is so that BRICS member states could
urgently replenish their liquidity from it in different
proportions to resolve problems with their balance of payments.
READ MORE: BRICS leadership passes to Russia,
$100bn development bank ‘main priority’
Meanwhile, Moscow is sure that new members will eventually join
the New Development Bank (NBD), as the
group wants to avoid it being called the ‘Bank of
BRICS’.
In July, BRICS members signed an agreement in Brazil to forge
ahead with the $100 billion NDB, which would also possess a
reserve currency pool worth over another $100 billion.
BRICS Rating Agency
Experts from BRICS countries are also discussing the creation of
a new independent rating agency the Russian envoy said, adding
that China’s rating agency Dagong was currently in talks with
Russia on the issue. The new Universal Credit Rating Group (UCRG)
is to rival the so-called ‘Big Three’ that currently
dominate the industry. The creation of an alternative agency was
raised after Standard Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch Group downgraded their rating regarding
Russia’s creditworthiness following the Western anti-Russia
sanctions.
“After the recent cases with Big Three rating agencies
issuing politicized and biased assessments of the state and
development prospects of Russian economy, this issue is of
particular relevance,” Vadim Lukov told journalists, adding
that Russia is not the first country to suffer from “rating
aggression and rating dumping.”
READ MORE: China and Russia to launch new credit
rating agency in 2015
The BRICS grouping of emerging market economies will meet for
summit twice this year; on July 8-9 in Ufa, and either on
November 15 or 16 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya.
Some 120 events will be held in 16 cities within the program of
Russia’s BRICS presidency program. Nineteen meetings will be held
at the ministerial level.
Russia took over the presidency of the BRICS group from Brazil on
Wednesday. President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce Sergey
Katyrin became the BRICS Business Council head.
The BRICS group of prominent emerging economies was established
in 2010, when South Africa joined Brazil, Russia, India and China
in what was previously known as BRIC. The BRICS countries make up
about 40 percent of the world’s population and command a combined
economy of about $16 trillion.