Seeds of Wisdom RV and Economic Updates Thursday Morning 11-21-24

21/11/2024

Good Morning ,

BRICS COUNTRIES GAIN INFLUENCE OVER G20

The G20 summit is ongoing in Brazil’s Rio and all the five BRICS countries are a part of the bloc. The world leaders are discussing trade deals and renewing policies at the summit. US President Joe Biden attended the summit but missed out on the photo op on Tuesday.

However, the world leaders retook the photo op placing Biden at the center and standing next to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his left and Canada’s Justin Trudeau to his right.

BRICS Influence in G20 Grows

The BRICS countries are having a bigger role in the G20 summit dominating the news cycle and photo ops. The show of unity was on full display making the leaders of Western countries seem like background noise. The show of unity was met with a starkly farcical smile by Biden as leaders clapped and held hands.

“The BRICS countries as a whole are gaining in their role and influence in the G20. This was evident both in Delhi at last year’s summit and in the year before in Indonesia. And here (Rio de Janeiro) it was especially clear,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a press conference.

During the previous G20 summits, BRICS countries rarely hit the news cycles but the 2024 event has turned things around. The bloc is displaying strength through unions and other trade deals indicating their economy can sustain without the West. The alliance recently sent invitations to 13 new nations to join as ‘Partner countries’

Indonesia accepted the invitation to join BRICS as a ‘Partner countries’ while the G20 summit was ongoing. Indonesian Ambassador to Russia, Jose Antonio Morato Tavares said that Indonesia “will actively contribute to and participate in any initiatives of BRICS. This is a positive development. Now, we are already a BRICS partner state,” he said.

@ Newshounds News™

Source: Watcher Guru

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MALAYSIA EXPLORING WHOLESALE CBDC

Two years ago Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) outlined its plans for central bank digital currency (CBDC). At the time it intended to explore wholesale CBDC (wCBDC) in the short term and a general purpose retail CBDC this year.

However, during a digital payments event yesterday it disclosed that the emphasis is solely on wholesale CBDC. It believes retail payments are already well served by existing systems.

Currently it is building expertise, performing preparatory work and getting to grips with the technology.

“If we were to issue wholesale CBDC in the future, we would know what it takes and what policy implications we need to bear in mind,” the central bank said, as reported by the Sun Malaysia.

The central bank envisages a wholesale CBDc as supporting interbank settlement for tokenized deposits both domestically and for cross border payments. International payments have been of interest for some time.

BNM was a participant in Singapore’s multi-CBDC Project Dunbar, and is an observer of mBridge, the cross border CBDC project that is currently at the minimum viable product stage. Active mBridge participants include the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the UAE.

Despite its preparations, the central bank has no immediate plans to issue one. It will continue working on wCBDC and DLT during 2024-25. Several Asian economies are currently exploring a wholesale CBDC to support tokenized deposits. They include the central banks of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

Ledger Insights recently released a report exploring tokenized deposits and bank stablecoins, highlighting more than 70 initiatives.

@ Newshounds News™