Podcast: replacing the dollar in South America – Folha – 05/31/2023 – Podcasts

As part of an integration plan for South America, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) defended, this Tuesday (30), the creation of a “common reference unit for trade”, to reduce dependence on of the dollar.

The statement was made during the opening of the meeting with representatives from all South American countries, in Brasilia.

When he was in China, in April, Lula had already spoken of an expansion of trade in the currencies of the countries that make up the Brics, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. “Who decided it was the dollar? We need to have a currency that transforms countries into a slightly more peaceful situation, because today a country needs to run after the dollar to export,” he said.

Amid a global dispute with the United States, China has been expanding the yuan’s influence. The country is opening up growing space in Latin America. In Brazil, the yuan has already surpassed the euro as the second largest foreign reserve currency.

The dollar remains the main currency in international reserves. But its share of global reserves fell from 73% in 2001 to 55% in 2021 and 47% in 2022.

This Wednesday’s Breakfast (31) talks about how the dollar has become the main currency of international reserves and what that involves. In an interview with the podcast, Paulo Gala, professor of economics at FGV-SP and chief economist at Banco Master, explains whether there is a way to de-dollarize the economy.

The audio program is published on Spotify, streaming service partner of Sheet in the initiative and which specializes in music, podcast and video. You can listen to the episode by clicking above. To access the application, just register for free.

Breakfast is published from Monday to Friday, always at the beginning of the day. The episode is presented by journalists Gabriela Mayer and Magê Flores, with production by Laila Mouallem and Priscila Camazano. Sound editing is by Thomé Granemann.