• The economist who coined the term BRICS says the bloc’s plans for a common currency are ridiculous.
• Jim O’Neill rejected the possibility of the group of countries challenging the dollar’s dominance.
• Officials of the five emerging economies meet next week to discuss whether to expand the bloc.

Lord Jim O’Neill, a former Goldman Sachs economist who first gave the BRICS bloc its name, has slammed the idea of the five nations ever collaborating to create a common currency.

The group — which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — has been calling for ways to end the dollar’s dominance as the world’s premier reserve currency, and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for a common trading note between them.

But O’Neill, who coined the bloc’s name in a 2001 research paper, is unconvinced.

“It’s just ridiculous,” he told the Financial Times in an interview on Monday. “They’re going to create a BRICS central bank? How would you do that? It’s embarrassing almost.”

Source: Business Insider