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Sino File | The China-Russia challenge to the US-led West has hit a BRICS wall
- With economic woes hitting all members of the bloc bar India, some are questioning its relevance
- Even among members, Beijing and Moscow’s attempts to switch focus to geopolitics is sowing division
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The association of the five major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the BRICS bloc – was originally about recognising economic potential. All five were supposed to be on their way to becoming developed powerhouses of the global economy.
Since 2001, when the Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill coined the acronym, the bloc’s combined share of the world economy has jumped from just eight per cent of global GDP to about a quarter.
As the bloc accounts for some 40 per cent of the world’s population and about 25 per cent of its land, the impressive growth has contributed to economic globalisation.
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And with intra-BRICS trade making up just 15 per cent of the global total, the five economies also have the potential to deepen integration.
Their economies are complementary in nature: Brazil is the world’s grocery store, Russia its gas station, India its service provider, China its factory, and South Africa its gold mine.
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What’s more, they have common ground in their efforts to rebalance a global system long dominated by the developed West, led since the end of World War II by the United States.
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