BRICs Will Not Mull New Reserve Currencies

Leaders of Russia, China, India and Brazil do not intend to discuss new global reserve currencies at their first summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on Tuesday, a top Kremlin aide said on Sunday.

"We will hardly be discussing the new reserve currencies," Sergei Prikhodko told reporters. "As far as practical issues are concerned, we will speak more about the possible ways to reform international financial institutions."

Brazil, Russia, India and China are trying to strengthen their clout as the producers of 15 percent of global output by building up their BRIC grouping into a powerful world player.

Russia, holder of the world's third largest foreign exchange reserves, has called for the world to become less dependent on the dollar and suggested that the yuan and the rouble could become reserve currencies in the future.

Concerns that dollar's role as the dominant reserve currency has contributed to global financial instability has been discussed by BRIC's top security officials, who met in Moscow last month to prepare the summit.

Brazilian Strategic Affairs Minister Roberto Mangabeira Unger told Reuters last month the summit was due to discuss the role of the U.S. dollar, strengthening the G20 group, reshaping the world trade regime and reform of the United Nations.

"We don't want a European-style central bank made global. We don't want a global Brussels," he said, adding that the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights were an option as long as the issuer's powers were limited.

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday the dollar's role as the world's main reserve currency was unlikely to change in the near future

"It is hard to say that in the next few years this system will change significantly," Kudrin told reporters after a meeting of finance minister of the G8 (Group of Eight) leading economies in Italy.

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