BRICS bank can create ‘honest’ currency anchored to gold – economist

This could help challenge the dollar and the current fiat system, Chris Hart has told RT

The New Development Bank is helping to multilateralize the world of finances, Chris Hart, executive chair of the Impact Investment Group, told RT.

According to Hart, a future BRICS common currency would potentially take global finances away from a specific power group based in Western countries. 

He explained that the Shanghai-based lender involves a number of very powerful economies, including Russia, Brazil, India and China, which are currently becoming the biggest economies on Earth, overtaking the G7 group. 

“There’s a certain economic muscle behind it,” Hart told RT on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. 

The economist highlighted that economically successful states such as Saudi Arabia are also interested in joining the BRICS bank, potentially making the organization more powerful and significant in the global financial system. 

“The bank becomes a major institutional squad of economically powerful backers,” he said, adding that the lender provides a wide range of opportunities for reducing the costs and complications of cross-border trade. 

READ MORE: BRICS bank may accept five new members

Hart also noted that the financial organization, launched by the BRICS nations back in 2014, is considering the idea of a common currency that could potentially be gold-backed. 

He claimed the foundation of the current global financial system is on quicksand since the US eliminated the gold standard in 1971. “You could print any currency out of thin air and inflate it into the system... And since then, there has been no proper anchor.”

According to Hart, if a future BRICS currency is pegged to gold, this would provide an enormous improvement to the "honesty" of the financial system.

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