BRICS
Evgeniya Vasilchenko
MIGE Summer 2014
Assignment 1 - Comparative Analysis of the BRICS1
BRICS refers to the group of large, developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The term BRICs was originally used by Goldman Sachs in a paper discussing the shift in global economic power from the leading world economies towards these rapidly developing, fast-growing, emerging markets.1 It's important to note that the Goldman Sachs thesis isn't that these countries are a political alliance (like the European Union) or a formal trading association, BRICS is used as a more generic marketing term to refer to the four original emerging economies. While these countries may be similar in several ways, they have widely divergent economic and political strategies – they are competitors. Together, the four original BRIC countries comprise more than 2.8 billion people or 40 percent of the world’s population, cover more than a quarter of the world’s land area over three continents, and account for more than 25 percent of global GDP.2 The size, economic potential, and nearly industrialized/developing economies are the main attributes the BRICS share. "All of these countries seek positions in international institutions more reflective of their weight within the global economy."3 Particularly, the BRICS are seeking to increase the representation of emerging economies within international financial institutions.1 BRICS has discussed the need for global reserve currency, possibly challenging the heavy reliance on the US Dollar. BRICS countries appear to be unified in promoting the global market shift towards their developing economies and away from bigger powers such as the US and the EU. However, they are still very dependent on the developed economies. They have not de-coupled from the developed economies. As an example, China has still relatively low level of domestic consumption today. Being the largest
MIGE Summer 2014
Assignment 1 - Comparative Analysis of the BRICS1
BRICS refers to the group of large, developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The term BRICs was originally used by Goldman Sachs in a paper discussing the shift in global economic power from the leading world economies towards these rapidly developing, fast-growing, emerging markets.1 It's important to note that the Goldman Sachs thesis isn't that these countries are a political alliance (like the European Union) or a formal trading association, BRICS is used as a more generic marketing term to refer to the four original emerging economies. While these countries may be similar in several ways, they have widely divergent economic and political strategies – they are competitors. Together, the four original BRIC countries comprise more than 2.8 billion people or 40 percent of the world’s population, cover more than a quarter of the world’s land area over three continents, and account for more than 25 percent of global GDP.2 The size, economic potential, and nearly industrialized/developing economies are the main attributes the BRICS share. "All of these countries seek positions in international institutions more reflective of their weight within the global economy."3 Particularly, the BRICS are seeking to increase the representation of emerging economies within international financial institutions.1 BRICS has discussed the need for global reserve currency, possibly challenging the heavy reliance on the US Dollar. BRICS countries appear to be unified in promoting the global market shift towards their developing economies and away from bigger powers such as the US and the EU. However, they are still very dependent on the developed economies. They have not de-coupled from the developed economies. As an example, China has still relatively low level of domestic consumption today. Being the largest