Making a dollar detour: Why BRICS isn’t breaking up with the dollar

Source: The Economic Times | Original Published At: 2026-09-14 15:04:00 UTC

Key Points

• The New Delhi Declaration does not propose a common BRICS currency or endorse linking members’ central bank digital currencies.
• It supports interoperable payment and messaging systems, settlement in national currencies, and greater local-currency financing.
• Indian officials stated that there is currently no BRICS proposal for a BRICS currency.
• BRICS members have divergent economic structures, currency internationalization levels, and monetary policy needs, making a common currency impractical.
• Local-currency settlement is driven by commercial benefits such as lower transaction costs and reduced reliance on dollar conversion.
• India’s UPI and Brazil’s Pix illustrate how cross-border payment links can work without surrendering national currencies or monetary policy.
• BRICS financial cooperation aims to make the dollar less indispensable by expanding settlement choices, not by replacing it with a common currency.