PATRICK MCGROARTY e DEVON MAYLIE
– Alcuni paesi del gruppo dei BRICS per facilitare lo scambio delle loro monete e creare una Banca comune di sviluppo, per contrastare l’influenza dei paesi sviluppati sull’economia internazionale.
– Vertice dei leader dei BRICS in Sudafrica (SA): Brasile e Cina hanno concordato di usare le rispettive banche centrali per scambiare nei prossimi tre anni fino a $30MD di real brasiliani e yuan cinesi, per consentire ai rispettivi gruppi economici di commerciare senza convertire le rispettive valute in $.
– Il ministro Finanze brasiliano: i paesi BRICS (Brasile, Russia, India, Cina e Sud Africa) stanno per siglare un accordo per creare riserve di moneta estera in caso di crisi delle bilance di pagamento.
– In corso la creazione di una nuova banca per lo sviluppo, pur rallentata dai disaccordi sul suo finanziamento e direzione (ministro Finanze russo); ogni paese contribuirebbe con $10MD, considerato un fondo ancora insufficiente, ma importante simbolicamente;
o essa si dovrebbe concentrare sullo sviluppo delle infrastrutture, sia nei BRICS che nei paesi emergenti:
o tutti desiderano i vantaggi derivanti da un blocco commercial più ambio; tutti temono di essere sommersi dalle merci altrui, della Cina in particolare; è un tentativo di trovare il mezzi per una bilancia commerciale più equa; l’Africa conta sulla Cina per lo sviluppo (Jacob Zuma, presidente Sud Africa);
o il presidente cinese, Xi Jinping, ha riconosciuto che la Cina in Africa persegue i propri interessi commerciali.
o Il Sud Africa la vuole per finanziare i progetti di infrastrutture, trascurate da FMI e BM.
o Cina ed India per ampliare la loro influenza in Africa e altri paesi emergenti.
Nel prossimo vertice dei BRICS del 2014 saranno prese decisioni più specifiche.
Updated March 26, 2013, 7:02 p.m. ET
Brics Nations Take Steps on Currency Trade, Bank
By PATRICK MCGROARTY in Durban and DEVON MAYLIE in Pretoria
South Africa’s first lady Bongi Ngema toasts China’s first lady Peng Liyuan as President Jacob Zuma looks on.
– Members of the Brics group of emerging markets took steps to trade their currencies more freely and to establish a joint development bank, seeking to counter the influence that developed countries exert over the global economy.
– Brazil and China agreed Tuesday at a summit of Brics leaders in Durban, South Africa, to use their central banks to swap up to $30 billion in Brazilian real and Chinese yuan over the next three years, allowing businesses to trade between the two countries without converting earnings and investments to U.S. dollars, the standard conduit of global trade.
– Brazil’s finance minister, Guido Mantega, said the arrangement, which the countries have been working toward since this past June, would give them a means to exchange currencies "independent of the conditions of financial markets."
– He also said the Brics countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—were close to an agreement to pool some foreign-currency reserves in case of a balance-of-payments crisis.
– The bloc’s move to create a new development bank, however, was weighed down by disagreements over funding and management, said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. "On the whole, we agreed that we will continue to work on creating a Brics bank once the unresolved questions are answered," the Interfax news agency quoted Mr. Siluanov as saying.
South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, added that he was pleased with the negotiations. "We’re on track," he said.
– South African officials want a new development bank to fund infrastructure projects that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have overlooked. Larger Brics members, such as China and India, are eager to establish an institution that could extend their influence deeper into Africa and other emerging markets where their economic interests are expanding.
The Brics’ slow march toward establishing their own bank illustrates their struggle to move past populist rhetoric to true cooperation between powerful and sometimes adversarial nations. Each is eager to reap the benefits of a larger trade group—and all are fearful of being flooded with products from the others, particularly China.
– "What we now seek to address jointly is to find the means towards a more equitable balance of trade," South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma told reporters in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, after meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping. "Africa is counting on the People’s Republic of China for support in the continent’s development."
– Mr. Xi acknowledged China is pursuing its own commercial interests in Africa. "We each see the other side as an opportunity for our own development," he said.
– According to the proposals discussed Tuesday, each country would likely contribute up to $10 billion to the bank, an official said, speaking before plans were to be approved by the national leaders gathering Wednesday. The bank would focus on infrastructure development, he said, both in the five-nation group and in emerging markets where they want to do business.
– But economists and business leaders said an initial pool of $50 billion wouldn’t be enough for the bank to make its mark in Africa or elsewhere.
– "At this point it’s somewhat symbolic," said Anthony Thunström, chief operating officer for accounting firm KPMG LLP’s Africa investment program. "Its potential will only be realized when it’s better capitalized, and I think that’s going to be a longer-term project."
– More specific decisions—including which country will host the bank and where it will invest—will be postponed at least until the bloc’s next summit meeting in Brazil in 2014, he said.
"There is general agreement that there is a need for this," said the official involved in the negotiations. "Creating a multilateral institution takes quite a long time from being an idea to being set up."
A version of this article appeared March 27, 2013, on page A8 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Brics Nations Take Steps on Currency Trade, Bank.