Brazil may drop dollar for transactions

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:50:02 GMT



President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Brazil is keen to see transactions between South American states take place using national currencies, without recourse to the US dollar.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva put the idea formally to his visiting Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, this week, suggesting that a system be set up where national monies can be used as the going commercial rate, officials said on Wednesday.

Uribe was said to have greeted the proposal with enthusiasm in talks on Tuesday with Lula. The Brazilian leader also telephoned the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, to express Uribe's interest and to explore options for Brazil and Venezuela to start talks on the issue.

The shared preoccupation of the South American leaders was their countries' dependency on the US dollar, especially during this time of high volatility on the currency markets.

"We need to get our finance ministers and central bank chiefs together to talk about making rules so we don't have to continue to be dependent on the dollar, which is becoming more and more problematic every day," Lula said in a speech on Wednesday.

The US dollar currently acts as an intermediary exchange means in Brazil.

SG/RE

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