BRICS Pushes for IMF and World Bank Reform as Emerging Markets Seek Greater Global Influence
BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors are pressing for a bigger voice for emerging economies in the institutions that shape global finance, calling for reforms at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as the economic weight of developing markets continues to grow.
In a joint statement issued ahead of the BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, finance chiefs said reform of global economic governance remains a consistent priority for the group, arguing that representation within international financial institutions should better reflect the growing contribution of emerging market and developing economies to global output and growth.
The group said its members would strengthen coordination to make international financial institutions more representative, transparent and accountable, placing governance reform at the heart of a wider push to reshape parts of the global financial architecture.
A bigger voice at the IMF and World Bank
The BRICS position goes beyond a general demand for greater representation, with the group backing changes to IMF quotas to better reflect countries’ relative weight in the global economy while increasing the shares of emerging and developing economies.
It is also pushing for stronger representation of developing countries at the World Bank, arguing that existing governance structures continue to reflect an economic balance established decades ago rather than today’s distribution of global economic power.
The issue has gained greater significance as BRICS has expanded beyond its original members and developed into a wider platform for the Global South, bringing together economies with considerable differences in size, political interests and development priorities.
“Serious concerns” over unilateral trade measures
Trade tensions were another major focus of the finance chiefs’ statement, with BRICS expressing “serious concerns” over the unilateral use of trade and finance-related measures, including higher tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
The group warned that such measures distort trade and can conflict with World Trade Organization rules, at a time when protectionism, geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainty are putting additional pressure on the global economy.
For emerging markets, those pressures extend beyond trade flows, potentially affecting investment, financing conditions, currencies and the cost of energy and other commodities.
BRICS looks beyond traditional financial channels
The finance agenda is also expanding into the infrastructure that moves money between member countries.
BRICS finance chiefs called for further progress on cross-border payment systems, encouraging work on solutions that are faster, cheaper, more accessible, transparent and secure.
The group is also exploring greater interoperability between payment and messaging systems and increased use of national currencies for trade and investment, while allowing individual members to pursue different approaches according to their domestic priorities.
The emphasis remains on improving financial connectivity rather than creating a single BRICS currency.
The New Development Bank is also being positioned as a more important financing arm for the group, with calls to expand local-currency lending, diversify funding sources and support infrastructure and sustainable development projects.
Economic weight meets the challenge of coordination
BRICS now brings together 11 countries and accounts for around 40% of global GDP on a purchasing power parity basis and nearly half of the world’s population, giving its demands for greater representation more economic weight than when the group was first established.
Yet expansion has also made consensus more difficult, as members have different geopolitical relationships and economic priorities.
That makes the New Delhi summit on September 12 and 13 an important test of whether BRICS can turn its growing economic scale into coordinated influence over the institutions and rules governing global finance.
For the group, reforming the IMF and World Bank is increasingly part of a wider objective: ensuring that the rise of emerging economies is reflected not only in global GDP figures, but also in who has influence over the financial system itself.
Sources: Reuters; Government of India – Press Information Bureau; Prime Minister of India; Financial Express.