BRICS

BRICS is an association of five major Emerging and Developing Economies (EDEs) in

the world.
BRICS is acronym consisting of initials of member nations.
Following are 5 members
1. Brazil.
2. Russia.
3. India.
4. China.
5. South Africa.

The grouping was originally known as BRIC before the inclusion of South Africa in
2010.
The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialised countries, but they are
distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies and significant influence on
regional and global affairs.
History of BRICS
The acronym was coined by Jim ONeill a Goldman Sachs employee in a 2001 paper
entitled Building Better Global Economic BRICs.
The acronym has come into widespread use as a symbol of the shift in global economic
power away from the developed G7 economies to the developing nations.
Political dialogue between the BRIC countries began in New York in September 2006,
with a meeting of the BRIC foreign ministers.
Four high-level meetings followed, including a full-scale meeting in Yekaterinburg,
Russia, on May 16, 2008.
The BRIC countries met for their rst ofcial summit on 16 June 2009, in
Yekaterinburg, Russia, with Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan
Singh, and Hu Jintao, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, all
attending.
South Africa sought membership during 2010 and the process for formal admission
began as early as August 2010.
 South Africa was admitted as a member nation on December 24, 2010 after being
formally invited by China and the other BRIC countries to join the group.
The group was renamed BRICS to reect the now-ve-nation membership, with an S
for South Africa appended to the acronym.
President Jacob Zuma of South Africa attended the 2011 BRICS summit in Sanya,
Hainan province, China in April 2011 as a full member.
Objectives of BRICS
The core focus of the summit was related to improving the current global economic
situation and discussing how the four countries can better work together in the
future, as well as a more general push to reform nancial institutions.
There was also discussion surrounding how emerging markets, such as those
members of BRIC, could be better involved in global affairs in the future.
In the aftermath of the summit the BRIC nations suggested that there was a need for
a new global reserve currency that is diversied, stable and predictable.
The statement that was released stopped short of making a direct attack on the
perceived dominance of the US dollar, something which the Russians have been
critical of; however, it still led to a fall in the value of the dollar against other major
currencies.
Statistics of BRICS
All five nations are G-20 members.
As of 2013, the five BRICS countries represent almost 3 billion people
(approximately41% of world population) with a combined nominal GDP of US$16.039
trillion and an estimated US$4 trillion in combined foreign reserves.
As of 2014, the BRICS nations represented 18 percent of the world economy .

Rank Country Population

1 China 1,354,040,000

2 India 1,210,194,422

3 Brazil 201,046,886

4 Russia 143,451,702

5 South Africa 51,770,560

Rank Country GDP($ bn)

1 China 8,227.0

2 Brazil 2,695.9

3 Russia 2,021.9

4 India 1,824.8

5 South Africa 384.3

Rank Country Household Consumer Spending

1 China 1,835.3

2 Brazil 1,266.3

3 India 737.9

4 Russia 671.6

5 South Africa 173.8

Rank Country Government Spending ($ bn)

1 China 2031.0

2 Brazil 846.6

3 Russia 414.0

4 India 281.0

5 South Africa 95.3

Rank Country GDP per capita (PPP) ($)

1 Russia 17,708

2 Brazil 13,623

3 South Africa 11,373

4 China 9,161

5 India 3,826

Rank Country Exports($ bn)

1 China 2021.0

2 Russia 542.5

3 India 309.1

4 Brazil 256.0

5 South Africa 101.2

Rank Country Imports($ bn)

1 China 1780.0

2 India 500.3

3 Russia 358.1

4 Brazil 238.8

5 South Africa 106.8

Rank Country Literacy rate (%)

1 Russia 99.60

2 Brazil 93.50

3 China 92.20

4 South Africa 86.40

5 India 74.04
Rank Country Life Expentancy(avg years)

1 Brazil 74.6

2 China 72.7

3 Russia 69.7

4 India 64.2

5 South Africa 51.2

Rank Country Human Development index

1 Russia 0.788

2 Brazil 0.730

3 China 0.699

4 India 0.554

5 South Africa 0.629

Developments in BRICS
In June 2012, the BRICS nations pledged $75 billion to boost the lending power of
the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, this loan was conditional on IMF
voting reforms.
In March 2013, during the fifth BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa, the member
countries agreed to create a global financial institution which they intended to rival
the western-dominated IMF and World Bank.
After the summit, the BRICS stated that they planned to finalise the arrangements for
this new development bank by 2014. However, disputes relating to burden sharing
and location have slowed down the agreements.
At the BRICS leaders meeting in St. Petersburg in September 2013, China committed
$41 billion towards the pool while Brazil, India and Russia $18 billion each; and
South Africa $5 billion.
China which is holder of the worlds largest foreign exchange reserves (FOREX) and
who has contributed the bulk of the currency pool of BRICS, wants a greater
managing role. China also wants the location of the reserve in China itself.
 On 11th October 2013, Russias Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that a decision
on creating a $100 billion fund designated to steady currency markets would be taken
in early 2014. The Brazilian finance minister, Guido Mantega stated that the fund
would be created by March 2014. However, by April 2014, the currency reserve pool
and development bank had yet to be set up, and the date was rescheduled to 2015.
One driver for the BRICS development bank is that the existing institutions primarily
benefit extra-BRICS corporations, and the political significance is notable because it
allows BRICS member states to promote their interests abroad and can highlight
the strengthening positions of countries whose opinion is frequently ignored by their
developed American and European colleagues.
In April 2014, Russian Ambassador at Large Vadim Lukov remarked that the dollar
may be replaced by the ruble and other national currencies of the BRICS counties,
and that A large part of the fund goes toward saving the Euro and the national
currencies of developed countries. Given that governance of the IMF is in the hands
of western powers, there is little hope for assistance from the IMF in case of an
emergency. That is why the currency reserve pool would come in very handy.
In July 2014, the Governor of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that
the BRICS partners the establishment of a system of multilateral swaps that will
allow to transfer resources to one or another country, if needed in an article which
concluded that If the current trend continues, soon the dollar will be abandoned by
most of the significant global economies and it will be kicked out of the global trade
finance.