BRICS to set up $100bn FX fund

Russia, Sep 6 – The BRICS group of emerging economies will contribute $100 billion to a fighting fund to steady currency markets destabilized by an expected pullback of US monetary stimulus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

 

China, holder of the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, will contribute the bulk of the currency pool. But it will be much smaller than the $240 billion originally envisaged and officials said it would not be functional for some time yet.

 

Cheap dollars that fuelled a boom in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa over the past decade have turned tail since Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned in May of a 'taper' in the US bond-buying scheme.

 

"The initiative to establish a BRICS currency reserve pool is at its final stage," Putin said in opening remarks to a meeting of BRICS leaders during a Group of 20 summit in Russia's second city, St Petersburg. "Its capital volume has been agreed at $100 billion."

 

At the meeting of BRICS leaders, China committed $41 billion; Brazil, India and Russia $18 billion each; and South Africa $5 billion.

 

Earlier, both Chinese vice-finance minister Zhu Guangyao and Russian deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak said details still needed to be worked out, suggesting that — beyond the announcement — much more work would need to be done on the reserve facility.

 

"We have asked not to create unnecessary expectations," Storchak said. "Politically, the countries are ready, but technically they are not."

 

TOI