The BRICS Parallel Economy: Building the Plumbing or Just Polishing the Pipe?
At SPIEF 2026, leaders move beyond rhetoric to build a parallel economy. From digital payments to the Logistics Connectivity Index, can BRICS turn political ambition into a functional trade reality?
ST. PETERSBURG — Against the backdrop of a shifting global order, the 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) has positioned itself as the definitive staging ground for a world economy no longer anchored solely to Western institutions. At the heart of this year’s agenda was the “New Drivers of Business Partnership within BRICS“ panel, a session that sought to move the bloc’s narrative from political aspirations to the mechanical realities of trade.
The data remains the bloc’s strongest selling point: BRICS now accounts for approximately 40% to 50% of global GDP and represents roughly half of the world’s population. Intra-bloc trade has surpassed the $1 trillion milestone. Yet, as the panel made clear, these “macro” wins mask a more difficult “micro” reality. To sustain this momentum, the bloc is attempting to re-engineer the very “drivers and mechanisms” of international commerce. The central question for observers is whether the new institutional frameworks discussed today—such as Russia’s recently minted National Committee for Business Cooperation—represent the birth of a viable parallel economic system or merely another layer of sophisticated bureaucracy.
The Geopolitical Impetus: Decentralization as Defense
The primary driver of the current BRICS expansion is a shared diagnosis of systemic failure. Russian officials argued today that the standards of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have effectively collapsed, leaving a void that necessitates new “rules of the game“. In this environment, the Kremlin is betting on business to lead where diplomacy has hit a ceiling.
Denis Agafonov, head of the Expert Department of the President of the Russian Federation, noted that business is “decentralized“ and “more flexible“ than state actors, making it the ideal vehicle for bypassing political bottlenecks. The establishment of the National Committee for Business Cooperation in February 2026 was presented as a strategic pivot to “coordinate the activity of bilateral committees” and provide an institutional home for private-sector initiatives. However, the investigative question remains: can a state-directed committee truly foster “decentralized” business growth, or is this simply a mechanism for aligning private capital with state geopolitical goals?
The Payment Problem: The Gap Between Ambition and Action
Nowhere is the friction between rhetoric and reality more visible than in the realm of payment settlements. For years, the “BRICS currency“ has been a staple of summit communiqués. Yet, the panel revealed a striking admission of delay. Elias Monage, a representative from South Africa, candidly observed that while a common payment platform was a priority during South Africa’s 2023 chairmanship and Russia’s 2024 presidency, the goal of concluding a common platform remains unfulfilled.
“Trade without a payment system cannot take off,” Managago warned, noting that it is “unacceptable” for BRICS members like Russia and South Africa to continue using the U.S. dollar as an intermediary for their respective national currencies. He called for central banks to be more “courageous” in accepting national currency settlements, a sentiment that highlights the persistent caution of the bloc’s financial regulators despite political pressure.
While a single BRICS currency remains a distant, perhaps even discarded, dream, the focus has shifted to technological workarounds. Petr Zaselskiy, Chairman of the Board of EXIMBANK of Russia, pointed toward the use of digital currencies and stablecoins linked to the yuan as a “fast” way to maintain liquidity and bypass traditional compliance barriers. There was talk of “interoperability” between Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), specifically looking toward China’s 2027 chairmanship to scale these experiments. This is a concrete area of activity, but it remains in the “experimental” phase, with Zaselskiy himself warning businesses to “tread carefully” and avoid unknown platforms masquerading as BRICS partners.
The African Corridor and the Risk of Perception
The inclusion of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in the discussion added a layer of pragmatic regionalism. Haytham Elmaayergi, Executive Vice President of Afreximbank, argued that the biggest barrier to South-South trade is not a lack of capital, but a “perception of risk“ that doesn’t match reality.
Afreximbank is currently attempting to link its Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) with China’s CIPS. This is a tangible mechanism—an effort to create a “BRICS-Africa corridor“ that includes guarantee systems and insurance to promote trade. By helping African nations move from exporting raw cotton to manufacturing garments with “BRICS technology,” the bank is attempting to build the value-added supply chains that the bloc has long promised.
Logistics: Measuring the “Connectivity Index”
If finance is the blood system of the bloc, as the ICBC representative suggested, then transport is its skeletal structure. Sergey Pavlov, First Deputy Managing Director of Russian Railways (RZD), highlighted a significant concrete development: the creation of a “Logistics Connectivity Index“. Set to be presented in July, this index is designed to assess BRICS transport routes against traditional corridors like the Suez Canal, providing a data-driven approach to identifying and removing “transport barriers“.
Pavlov’s report of a 2.5-fold increase in haulage with BRICS partners over the past year is a rare piece of hard evidence that supply chains are indeed realigning. Agreements to build a second track at the Zabaykalsk-Manzhouli section of the railroad between Russia and China further indicate that physical infrastructure is being prioritized over mere diplomatic statements.
The “One-Stop Shop” and Regulatory Hurdles
To attract the investment needed for these projects, Murat Kerefov of VEB.RF discussed the “Invest Russia“ portal, a “one-stop-shop“ principle designed to synchronize investment support across the bloc. The proposal is to harmonize regulations so that an investor in India or Brazil faces the same rules and support mechanisms when entering the Russian market.
However, the panel also underscored a critical structural gap: the lack of a “code of new rules“. Without a formalized harmonization of relations and a stable regulatory framework, the “trust” that speakers repeatedly cited remains a fragile substitute for law. The proposal for a “BRICS insurance and reinsurance“ mechanism was mentioned, but notably, it is “not yet in force“.
The Global Realignment
What does this mean for the global economic architecture? The SPIEF 2026 discussions signal a move from “G2G“ (government-to-government) declarations to “B2B“ (business-to-business) implementation. The rhetoric of “civilizational response“ and “rejection of old obsolete mechanisms“ is high, but the builders are clearly struggling with the plumbing.
For non-BRICS nations, the risk is not necessarily a sudden “de-dollarization“ event, but a gradual “slow-drip” of trade into these new, separate channels. If the “Logistics Connectivity Index“ and the digital currency experiments succeed, a significant portion of global trade could move into a closed-loop system where Western sanctions and financial standards no longer apply.
Forward-Looking Perspective: September in New Delhi
The true test of today’s rhetoric will come in September 2026, when India assumes the BRICS chairmanship and hosts the next summit. Ambassador Vinay Kumar emphasized that India’s theme—”Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability“—will focus on “practical and clear“ outcomes in critical technologies and startup ecosystems.
However, the parting shot from the panel came from the South African delegation, which demanded “clear timelines“ for the implementation of a common currency platform. Without these timelines, today’s talk of “new drivers“ risks being remembered as just another well-polished piece of rhetoric. The foundations are being laid—through rail tracks and digital ledgers—but the “parallel economy“ is still very much a work in progress, hampered by the very diversity and lack of unified standards that the bloc often celebrates as its greatest strength.
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South Africa is right.
BRICS gives me a lot of hope, especially as we see the economies of the west fall apart.