China and Brazil agreed to trade in each other's currencies just hours ahead of the BRICS summit in South Africa.
The deal, which extends over a three-year period and amounts to an exchange of about $30 billion in trade per year, marks the latest effort among two of the world's largest emerging economies to shift the dynamics of international trade that have long favored the U.S. dollar.
"Our interest is not to establish new relations with China, but to expand relations to be used in the case of turbulence in financial markets," Brazilian Central Bank Governor Alexandre Tombini said, Reuters reported.
By shifting some trade away from the U.S. dollar, the world's primary reserve currency, the two countries aim to buffer their commercial ties against another financial crisis like the one that resulted from the collapse of the U.S. housing market bubble in 2008.
(H/T Some Guy)
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