BRICS is a term used to designate the group of emerging economies countries formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
"BRICS" is an acronym that is, the joining of the initials of words that form another term. Its creator is the British economist Jim O'Neill, from the financial group Goldman Sachs, in 2001.
The economist tried to find a way to translate the economic growth that would be carried out in that decade by Brazil, Russia, India and China. Therefore, he employed the expression "BRIC".
At that time, Brazilian growth still raised doubts, as well as Russia, which was stagnant. China, on the other hand, had very high growth rates among the others and stood out in the world economic scenario.
Summary
The study carried out by Jim O'Neil was received with immense satisfaction in the countries that lead the BRIC.
Thus, given the prospects for growth and the scores of international agencies, the governments of the BRIC officially promoted the possibility of forming a bloc between these countries emerging.
The BRIC was formed as a block in 2009 and since then, several periodic meetings between these countries have been held. In 2011, another country was added: South Africa.
In this way, the BRIC became BRICS. However, the inclusion of South Africa generated criticism from the world economic community, as it would not be at the same level of growth as other countries.
countries
BRICS is formed by:
- Brazil
- Russia
- India
- China
- South Africa
Goals
- Institutionalization of the BRICS group,
- Creation of an emergency reserve bank for any economic rescue,
- Strengthen countries' economies,
- Establish cooperation in technical, scientific, cultural and academic areas.
Bank
The New Development Bank, popularly known as the "BRICS Bank", was created in July 2014 and is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
With an initial capital of 100 billion dollars, the institution's objective is to be a rescue and investment bank for the bloc's countries. Furthermore, it is an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank for countries in need of credit.
According to data from the bank itself, in August 2017 there were 11 projects financed by the institution, with a value of 3 billion dollars.
Map
See the location and flags of the BRICS countries on the map below:
Features
The BRICS countries are marked by emerging countries, susceptible to economic crises and lacking social guarantees for the populations.
Let's look at some BRICS data:
GDP (Source: World Bank.2016)
| Brazil | 1.796 billion dollars |
|---|---|
| Russia | 1.283 billion dollars |
| India | 2.264 billion dollars |
| China | 11, 2 billion dollars |
| South Africa | 294, 8 million dollars |
Population
| Brazil | 201 million |
|---|---|
Russia |
144 million |
| India | 1.2 billion |
| China | 1.3 billion |
| South Africa | 52 million |
HDI (Source: UNDP.2016)
| Brazil | 79º |
|---|---|
| Russia | 49º |
| India | 131ª |
| China | 90º |
| South Africa | 119ª |
Cartoon
Currently, with the differences in growth between Brazil's GDP and that of other BRICS members, a series of criticisms have appeared in the press.
The drawing by cartoonist Moisés, from January 2016, sums up the situation well:
Curiosities
- The BRICS GDPs, together, are equivalent to 22% of the world GDP.
- The population, on the other hand, accounts for 42% of the planet's inhabitants.
- India was the only one to maintain high growth rates reaching up to 9% per year.
- In August 2013, economist Jim O'Neil declared that the term BRICS no longer made "any sense", given the directions taken by the countries that made it up.
read more:
- Economic blocks
- Apec
- globalization
- G8 - Group of Eight
- What are economic blocks?
Discover the economic blocks that exist around the world:
