The Brazilian press reported on comments by Dilma Rousseff, the president of the BRICS New Development Bank, at the May 13 China-CELAC meeting. Rousseff noted at the gathering of China with Latin American and Caribbean nations that “our relationship is necessary, strategic, and based on equality.”
As for the NDB, she said that “we share the vision of the Belt and Road Initiative: development with sovereignty and without conditionalities.” She said total NDB investments now total $140 billion, and that currently 24% of all its loans are denominated in local currencies (i.e., not dollars), and that 31% of its capitalization is non-dollar—i.e., that the bonds it issues are increasingly denominated in yuan, rupees, reals, etc. This led to “strengthening its identity as a platform for South-South cooperation,” Brasil247 noted.
