BRICS mutual trade records
Trade within the BRICS grouping has hit a new high. For the 2024–2025 period, trade volume among BRICS countries reached a record‑breaking $1.17 trillion — a more than tenfold increase over the past two decades.
The robust level of mutual trade is largely driven by a series of key agreements aimed at expanding trade ties, building internal supply chains, and developing an independent financial infrastructure designed to gradually reduce reliance on the dollar.
A notable shift has been the active move toward settling transactions in national currencies.
For instance, in Russia–China bilateral trade, the share of ruble and yuan settlements has topped 85%. Russia's transactions with other BRICS nations are also increasingly conducted in national currencies. In 2024, roughly 68% of deals were settled in local currencies; by 2025, that figure had climbed to 80–90% — with the vast majority of trades being conducted in local currencies without the use of the U.S. dollar, as had previously been the case.
Along with building an independent payment infrastructure, several factors have been driving intra‑BRICS trade: countering the trade policies of major Western economies (primarily the U.S.), navigating the sanctions environment, and advancing transport infrastructure and logistics.
The BRICS Transport project has been launched to digitalize and standardize cargo shipments; new transport corridors are being developed between the member countries, and container routes to India, China, and Brazil are under testing. South‑South production chains are taking shape.
Russia is making a substantial contribution to the strong intra‑BRICS trade performance. Trade with China reached 228 billion in 2025 (a slight dip from $240 billion the year before), while trade with India amounted to 63 billion (down from 70 billion in 2024). China–Brazil trade volume climbed to $171 billion, marking a major milestone. The slight dip in trade volumes between Russia on one side and China and India on the other was balanced out by surging trade flows with the bloc’s new members. Among the latest additions to BRICS, the UAE and Egypt stand out for their explosive trade growth with the member countries. Russia’s trade with the UAE topped $12 billion, while trade with Egypt jumped by a third. Egypt ranks as Africa’s biggest purchaser of Russian grain.
However, trade flows among the BRICS member countries are unevenly distributed. China remains the undisputed leader in trade volumes, accounting for about 70 % of the bloc’s total exports in 2025. Meanwhile, the other members, being smaller economies, show more modest results. Countries with a smaller economic footprint have seen low trade growth: Indonesia accounts for 2.7 %, Iran for 0.6 %, and Egypt for 0.2 %. Russia’s share of BRICS’ total exports stands at around 13%.
While intra‑BRICS trade has reached significant levels, it hasn’t yet hit its peak and still has plenty of room to grow.
The material was prepared specially for the BRICS Expert Council-Russia
This text reflects the personal opinion of the authors', which may not coincide with the position of the BRICS Expert Council-Russia