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An Empirical Study on BRIC – Opportunities and Threats
Authors: Prof. Dr. S.K. Baral
Number of views: 569
The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) idea was first conceived in 2001 by Goldman
Sachs as part of an economic modelling exercise to forecast global economic trends over the
next half century. The bundling of the world’s largest emerging economies under the
acronym BRIC made sense back in 2001, but the ever-apparent differences between the
countries and the subsequent changes in the global economy show that having a clear
understanding of the intricacies within each country and its developments remains as
important as ever. BRIC Foreign Ministers at their meeting in New York on 21st September
2010 agreed that South Africa may be invited to join BRIC. Accordingly, South Africa was
invited to attend the 3rd BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit in
Sanya on 14 April 2011. As the second largest economy in the world today, China is nearly
four times larger than Brazil, the smallest BRIC economy. China is ranked 29th in the World
Economic Forum's latest Global Competitiveness Index while Brazil (48th), India (59th) and
Russia (67th) are ranked much lower in the Index. Southern Africa ranks closer to these
countries (53rd). This paper deals with the opportunities and threats associated with BRIC.
Data has been collected from secondary sources of evidence to understand the importance of
the topic.