Emerging economies with developed and diversified industry bases are beginning to look toward joining the economic and trade blocs which are not aligned with Europe or the United States, as Argentina becomes the latest to explore joining the BRICS (Brasil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economic group.
Argentina is home to an inflationary currency, and has a long history of unstable government, however it is a large producer of a diverse range of products for export all the way from mass-produced food to cars and trucks.
President Alberto Fernandez said that if Argentina was to join the BRICS group, it would help to foment a “new world order based on development”.
Right now, the currencies of the West are beginning to demonstrate the full effect of the political movements of the past two years as inflation rages rampant across Europe and North America following lockdowns, and the cost of raw materials and energy products head for the stratosphere due to the all-encompassing sanctions on Russia led by Europe and the United States.
Meanwhile, the emerging nations are looking at India, China and Russia as economic forces which are growing and the union between those three being ever stronger.
Add the inflation in Europe and North America to the dollar and euro now having less importance as commodities settlement currencies, and there is a notcable movement upwards for outlying currencies.
The ruble is on the rise again this morning and is currently at 58 rubles to the US Dollar, which is a five-year high for the Russian currency.
Western customers of Russian oil and gas companies having to settle transactions in rubles has tied the ruble to valuable consumable commodities, and the oil and gas prices are also high at the moment, making this an advantageous situation for the ruble.
There was some talk in the middle of last decade about a potential emergence of the ‘petro-ruble’ but that subsided and the majors continued to reign supreme, however nowadays there is a distinct case for the petro-ruble as its value responded immediately to the legislation which determined that all Western nations must pay for energy materials from Russian companies in rubles.
Just 2 months ago, the ruble was at 134 to the US dollar, and now it is at 58.
That is volatility, and it is volatility driven by a strong raw materials and commodities market across the OPEC countries and a weakening Western economy dogged by inflation and political wrangling.
There are even some commentators who believe that once the US Dollar is no longer viewed as the global ‘petro-currency’, we could see even more volatility in the currency, commodity and US stock markets.
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