What are the BRICS countries?

In economics, BRIC is a grouping acronym that refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. It is typically rendered as "the BRICs" or "the BRIC countries" or "the BRIC economies" or alternatively as the "Big Four". A related acronym is BRICS which includes South Africa.

The acronym was coined by Jim O'Neill in a2001 paper entitled "Building Better Global Economic BRICs".[1][2][3] The acronym has come into widespread use as a symbol of the apparent shift in global economic power away from the developed G7 economies towards the developing world.

Projections on the future power of the BRIC economies vary widely. Some sources suggest that they might overtake the G7 economies by2027.[4] More modestly, Goldman Sachs has argued that, although the four BRIC countries are developing rapidly, it was only by2050 that their combined economies could eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world.[5]

In2010, however, while the four BRIC countries accounted for over a quarter of the world's land area and more than40% of the world's population,[6][7] they accounted for only one quarter of the world gross national income.[8][9]

According to a paper published in2005, Mexico and South Korea were the only other countries comparable to the BRICs, but their economies were excluded initially because they were considered already more developed, as they were already members of the OECD.[10] The same creator of the term "BRIC" coined the term MIKT, that includes Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey; more recently, in2013, he endorsed the term MINT, which replaces South Korea (now regarded as already developed) with the growing economy of Nigeria.[11][12]

Several of the more developed of the N-11 countries, in particular Turkey, Mexico, Indonesia and South Korea, were seen as the most likely contenders to the BRICs. Some other developing countries that have not yet reached the N-11 economic level, such as South Africa, aspired to BRIC status.

South Africa was subsequently successful in joining the bloc. This was despite economists at the Reuters2011 Investment Outlook Summit, held on6–7 December2010, dismissing the prospects of South African success .[13] Jim O'Neill, for example, told the summit that South Africa, at a population of under50 million people, was just too small an economy to join the BRIC ranks.[14] However, after the BRIC countries formed a political organization among themselves, they later expanded to include South Africa, becoming the BRICS.[15]

BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China andSouth Africa. The BRICS members are alldeveloping or newly industrializedcountries, but they are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economiesand significant influence on regional and global affairs; all five are G-20 members. As of2013, the five BRICS countries represent almost3 billion people, with a combined nominal GDP of US$16.039 trillion,and an estimated US$4 trillion in combined foreign reserves.