The global economy is showing signs of recovery. However, the pace of recovery is likely to remain uneven with potential for significant economic scarring, especially for the developing countries which have faced severe stress on their health and economic systems. The global economic prospects are expected to evolve continuously subject to downside risks, some of which could materialize and impose increased pressure on vulnerable economies, in particular, the worsening pandemic dynamics due to lack of access to vaccines; price pressures; acute financial tightening and widening inequalities. While the short-term recovery of the economies depends on the effectiveness of vaccination programs, the key to restoring growth momentum in the medium to long run will be based on well-calibrated policy support and structural reforms including revamping of health infrastructure. We welcome the sharing of policy experiences by member countries on their domestic economic response to COVID-19 pandemic (Annexure) and will continue to engage in learning from each other’s experiences.

We recognize the varied impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on BRICS economies and their recovery paths. Facing threats from new COVID-19 strains and repeated waves of infection, our Governments and Central Banks will have to balance the trade-offs between continued policy support for mitigating the immediate impact of the pandemic vis-à-vis available policy space for pursuing structural measures to rebuild economic resilience. We will work towards strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation in supporting the recovery of BRICS economies and maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability, while protecting against future uncertainties and risks. We also recognize the need for clear, transparent and timely communication of global policy responses and exit strategies to effectively manage the spillovers from policy actions.

To enable our economies to emerge from the crisis and achieve sustainable and inclusive growth, we are determined to continue our efforts to strengthen structural reforms that are well-designed, well-targeted and properly sequenced; provide timely support to the most vulnerable sections of the population and businesses; enhance long-term infrastructure investments, both in economic and social infrastructure; and accelerate socially inclusive digital transformation, while also ensuring data privacy and protection. We recognize that as we recover, we need to work with the global community to promote sustainable development and address climate change risks. Our coordinated policy response to tackle climate change will be evidence-based relying on equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC). We call upon developed countries to fulfil their obligations, including declared commitment on climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building support for enabling sustainable and inclusive transitions in the developing countries and securing progress towards meeting the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement. We emphasize that measures to combat climate change should not be used to undermine fair competition and we are deeply concerned with unilateral climate-related trade barriers such as Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism of the European Union. We also recognize that country-specific circumstances and priorities play a critical role in designing policies aimed at achieving low greenhouse gas emissions and there is no single universal path for achieving this goal.

We remain concerned about the uneven pace of vaccine rollout. We recognize the role of COVID-19 vaccine as a global public good and emphasize the need for re-energizing multilateral and regional cooperation mechanisms for achieving fast, effective, affordable and equitable delivery of vaccines for all, especially in developing and least developed countries. We look forward to ongoing discussions in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the Proposal related to waiver of Intellectual Property Rights to deal with COVID-19, as well as other global efforts for increased vaccine production and equitable access. We also stress upon the need for scientific evidence-based, objective assessment of vaccines’ safety and effectiveness by regulators throughout the world.

COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of affordable and resilient social infrastructure alongside economic infrastructure. We reaffirm the positive role of digital technologies, such as tele-medicine, e-health initiatives and online education, in ensuring inclusive access and affordability of social services. We endorse the Technical Report on Social Infrastructure: Financing and Use of Digital Technologies as a collaborative effort to share knowledge. We recognize the significant potential of digital financial inclusion in achieving economic growth. To this end, we welcome the Report on Digital Financial Inclusion in BRICS and look forward to continued sharing of best practices in these areas.

We recognize the important role of New Development Bank (NDB) in addressing health and economic consequences of the pandemic. As it continues its commendable efforts to support BRICS economies in financing infrastructure and sustainable development projects, we urge NDB to enhance its role in mobilizing and catalyzing private capital as well as undertake more co-financing ventures with other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and Development Financial Institutions (DFIs). We also encourage NDB to explore the possibility of financing more social infrastructure projects, including those that use digital technologies. We look forward to resuming

technical engagements with the NDB and the BRICS Task Force on PPP and Infrastructure on the Integrated Digital Platform on infrastructure investment projects and call for intensification of work in this area. We look forward to the upcoming NDB’s General Strategy aimed at strengthening Bank’s capacity to finance member countries’ infrastructure investment needs by onboarding private sector players. We welcome substantial progress achieved in admission of the new members and encourage the Bank to maintain a balanced list with a sufficient number of potential countries including both borrowing and non-borrowing countries. We express satisfaction at the operationalization of NDB’s regional offices in Brazil, Russia and South Africa and look forward to the opening of NDB’s regional office in India in 2021. We also look forward to the Bank’s relocation to its permanent headquarters building in Shanghai in 2021.

7. We will continue our efforts to strengthen the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) to mitigate any crisis situations in future. We welcome the successful completion of the fourth CRA test run, and take note of discussions on framework for coordination between IMF and CRA. We look forward to further discussions on amending the CRA documents.

8. We recognize that the macroeconomic stability of the BRICS economies will play a major role in achieving global recovery and stability. As we continue our efforts to strengthen our cooperation towards achieving strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive economic growth in a post-pandemic world, we recognize that it is important for the BRICS economies to assess how our economic policies would impact each other and are geared to meet our common objectives.

Annexure to the BRICS FMCBG Statement, 2021 Snapshot of BRICS Policy Experience in Responding to COVID-19 Crisis

I. INTRODUCTION Countries are navigating through the health and economic crisis imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing uniquely crafted policy measures that are unprecedented in scale and scope. Even though these policies are in accordance with country-specific circumstances, sharing these country experiences can provide valuable insights in the global fight against the pandemic. The Governments of BRICS nations have been taking comprehensive measures aimed at protecting the lives and livelihoods of people and businesses that have been most severely impacted by the pandemic. While these stimulus measures continue, BRICS countries have also been focusing on how to enable their economies to move on to a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in the medium to long term along with continued focus on strengthening the health infrastructure. The focus on rebuilding the health infrastructure is particularly important given that the vulnerabilities and challenges that confronted the health system around the world were one of the key reasons for the pandemic to metamorphose into a global socio-economic crisis. BRICS members have taken significant measures on the health front, primarily targeted towards enhancing the access to several medical interventions including COVID-19 control tools such as vaccine administration, in a prompt, safe, efficacious and affordable manner, besides providing overall support to the health infrastructure systems, but more remains to be done. This document covers policy experiences of BRICS members with a specific focus on economic responses to the pandemic. It has been prepared based on BRICS members’ response to a Survey Questionnaire on Policy Experiences of BRICS economies in response to COVID-19 as well as the information obtained from International Monetary Fund’s Policy Tracker.

II. ECONOMIC RESPONSE TO COVID-19: IMMEDIATE MEASURES The transition of the COVID-19 pandemic from a health crisis to a socio-economic crisis warranted Governments to swiftly inject the necessary stimulus so as to ensure adequate economic support to the most vulnerable sections of population and severely affected businesses.

Fiscal Policy Response On the fiscal policy front, BRICS governments provided timely and huge amount of stimulus packages, largely focused towards two areas: (a) funding immediate health response to COVID-19 and strengthening of domestic health sectors; and (b) immediate direct financial support to the vulnerable households and businesses. Provision of unemployment insurance or employment maintenance schemes, waiving of social security contributions; discounted loans to affected sectors (particularly SMEs) and sector producing essential/ medical goods, were among the most commonly adopted measures to address the extreme decline in demand and supply as well as towards protecting jobs. Key fiscal instruments employed by BRICS governments were tax deferrals, concessionary and preferential loans, direct transfers to vulnerable groups, interest subsidies, subsidized mortgage payments, and emergency credit support.

Monetary Policy Response Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, BRICS Central Banks largely held an accommodative monetary policy stance setting their policy rate at historically low levels. This was combined with timely and effective actions to bolster liquidity in domestic and foreign currencies through various instruments including open market operations. To ensure support to the vulnerable businesses and maintain continuity in delivery of banking services, BRICS Central Banks have undertaken various measures, viz., various regulatory forbearance and relief measures, concessionary refinancing of loans, creation of swap lines, expansion of special credit lines, relief of capital requirements for banks, reduction of the interest on excess reserves and stable functioning of payment systems. These measures in combination with