Can BRICS De-dollarize the Global Financial System?

BRICS have been de-dollarizing their trade, are they developing an alternative non-dollar global financial system?

Zongyuan Zoe Liu (Author), Mihaela Papa (Author)

9781009014625, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 March 2022

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.6 cm, 0.151 kg

Existing scholarship has not systematically examined BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) as a rising power de-dollarization coalition, despite the group developing multiple de-dollarization initiatives to reduce currency risk and bypass US sanctions. To fill this gap, this study develops a 'Pathways to De-dollarization' framework and applies it to analyze the institutional and market mechanisms that BRICS countries have created at the BRICS, sub-BRICS, and BRICS Plus levels. This framework identifies the leaders and followers of the BRICS de-dollarization coalition, assesses its robustness, and discerns how BRICS mobilizes other stakeholders. The authors employ process tracing, content analysis, semi-structured interviews, archival research, and statistical analysis of quantitative market data to analyze BRICS activities during 2009-2021. They find that BRICS' coalitional de-dollarization initiatives have established critical infrastructure for a prospective alternative nondollar global financial system. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

1. Introduction
2. A Coalitional De-dollarization Challenge?
3. BRICS as a De-dollarization Coalition
4. 'Go-it-Alone' Strategy: Establishing New Institutions and Market Mechanisms
5. 'Reform-the-Status-Quo' Strategy: Remaking Existing Institutions and Markets
6. Conclusion and Implications for Future Research.

Subject Areas: Finance [KFF], Economics [KC], Economics, finance, business & management [K]