Lula says Brazil and Argentina will study common currency for trade

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks at a bilateral agreement signing ceremony with Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez (not pictured), during?Lula da Silva?s?first official visit abroad since his inauguration, at the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 23, 2023. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday said Brazil and Argentina are studying the creation of a common currency to be used in trades between the two countries in order to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar.

"Our finance ministers, each with his own economic team, can make us a proposal for foreign trade and transactions between the two countries that is done in a common currency to be built with much debate and many meetings. This is what is going to happen," Lula told reporters alongside Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez in Buenos Aires.