The BRICS bloc is challenged by its own mixture of political and economic types, Nouriel Roubini said. Apart from India, each member is seeing mediocre growth. “The idea that the BRICS are going to take over the world turned out not to be right.” Loading Something is loading.
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While Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa seek to challenge the West on the global stage, don’t expect them to create a new world order, according to economist Nouriel Roubini.
The so-called BRICS countries received a lot of hype, but they have disparate political systems and economies, he told journalist Mikhail Zygar in a recent YouTube interview.
“The idea that the BRICS are going to take over the world turned out not to be right,” Roubini said.
He said that except for India, every member is now experiencing sub-par growth. That’s as Russia’s economy is increasingly weighed down by the country’s war in Ukraine, while China’s post-pandemic reopening has resulted in disappointing economic activity.
He also pointed out that the BRICS are composed of three democracies and two autocracies, government structures that do not combine well together. Meanwhile, China and India have been engaged in a long-running border dispute.
“This BRICS is a bit of a mishmash that, by itself, has very different countries: economically, socially, politically, and geopolitically,” Roubini said. “And only one of them is growing very strongly now, India. The rest is mediocre.”
The BRICS bloc has framed itself as a future alternative to the Western-dominated structure of global finance and were once among the world’s fastest growing economies.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the BRICS group was working on a rival to the greenback, though a top Indian official said this week they aren’t developing one.
Still, individual members have been pursuing separate efforts to reduce their reliance on the US dollar. China, for example, has aggressively tried to internationalize the yuan, while Brazil is seeking a currency union with Argentina.
Asked about challenges to the dollar’s dominance, Roubini said that Western efforts to involve the developing world through meaningful investment will go a long way in securing its future.
Meanwhile, a rival currency may provide protection from Western sanctions, but by itself isn’t sufficient for growth, he added.
“Creating an alternative currency regime does not imply economic success,” he said.