The exorbitant privilege the US enjoys from the dollar being unambiguously the world's reserve currency is under attack again. The emerging market BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are trying to attract hangers-on by whipping up talk of a rival to dethrone King Dollar. It's going to fail for all the usual reasons. As the King himself, Elvis Presley, sang: A little less conversation, a little more action, please.
Following its invasion of Ukraine, $300 billion worth of Russian foreign exchange and gold reserves were frozen by the US and Europe, raising the possibility that the overseas assets of countries acting contrary to western interests could similarly be withheld. There is a point here about potential overreach, as western sanctions on bad state actors have mushroomed in recent years. The US government cannot ignore the fallout from its retaliatory action against Putin, and enlightened self interest suggests it should deliver more clarity on what it will and won't do in the future. The irony is that de-dollarisation is rearing its head just as the US settles its debt-ceiling fracas.
The influence of the BRICS coalition could be substantial, given the group has 42 percent of the world's population. But economically, it delivers just 23 percent of total global output and only 18 percent of trade. According to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions, the dollar is used for 42 percent of currency transactions. The euro’s share is 32 percent but it doesn't have anything like the same influence outside Europe and parts of North Africa. The Chinese yuan contributes about 2 percent, as its non-domestic usage does not extend significantly even within Asia, or outside of trade-linked finance.
As many as 19 other countries are interested in joining the federation, Bloomberg News reported, with 13 nations already formally invited. But an ever bigger set of contradictory interests will only make the concept even less manageable. A common currency is on the agenda. One Russian idea is to make it part-backed by gold — although moving gold bars around is no simple matter. Despite a mutual dislike of the extended reach of the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the grouping's fundamental differences are too wide for it to make headway. Cheap Russian oil may currently be highly attractive for hydrocarbon-importing nations but it is not a long-term foundation for world trade.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago highlighted last month that any legal BRICS-backed tender would require a single central bank. As with its belt-and-road initiative across Asia into Europe, it is impossible to imagine that China would not dominate any wider BRICS
forum, making Shanghai the most likely location for a BRICS central bank. That is unlikely to sit easily with India, which frequently has border skirmishes with China. Replacing a liberal democracy-backed currency with a concept dominated by a totalitarian state with capital controls won’t float.
If the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cannot come up with a petro-currency, what chance does a random bunch of geographically disparate nations have? A South American trade currency concept called the "sur" is struggling because smaller countries’ interests will just be smothered by the much larger economy of Brazil.
Some BRICS countries are resource-rich, most resource-poor. None, either alone or combined, can magic up an alternative currency. Substantive progress on nuts-and-bolts commerce among the group has to come first. The dollar's dominance might be irksome but there is no alternative that is anywhere near critical mass. Rage against the dollar machine all you want — but it isn’t listening.
Marcus Ashworth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European markets. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
Credit: Bloomberg
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