PRESS RELEASE

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BRICS Banks VP: China and the BRICS Will Continue To Be the Driving Force of World Economic Growth

Aug. 19, 2017 (EIRNS)—Paulo Nogueira Batista, the vice president of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), told People’s Daily Aug. 18, that China and the BRICS will continue to "hold the key" to global economic growth. Nogueira’s comments came as BRICS representatives held a two-day Seminar on Governance Aug. 17-18 in Quanzhou, Fujian province, ahead of the Ninth BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen, China in early September.

Nogueira stated that

"China has a large weight in the world economy, and the BRICS countries will continue to hold the key to a large part of what happens in terms of world growth."

He noted ironically that Western economists have been predicting a "hard landing" of the Chinese economy since the 1990s, but that China has actually done "remarkably well." "A growth of 6 or 7% per year for a large economy like China is a major achievement." Nogueira said that, "As China grows in the world, I believe China will naturally have an increasingly greater voice."

As for the activities of the NDB, "we’ve had enormous support form Beijing, and it was really the best decision for the NDB to be based in China." The bank will soon be accepting new members, and lending to countries beyond the BRICS. Nogueira said that existing institutions like the World Bank are not meeting all the needs of developing countries; and unlike the World Bank and the IMF, "we are not going to be in the business of dictating policy or even recommending policy," he said pointedly.