BRICS

A grouping that began as an acronym invented by an investment bank and turned itself into a real organisation. The term was coined in 2001 by an economist at Goldman Sachs to describe four large emerging economies expected to dominate growth - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and it was a piece of market analysis with no political content whatsoever. The countries themselves adopted it, held their first summit in 2009, and added South Africa the following year, which made the acronym work and the economics weaker. What holds the group together is not a shared economic model, since its members range from a one-party state to large democracies, but a shared objection: that the institutions of global governance created in 1944 and 1945 give too little weight to countries that now account for a large share of world output and population. It created a New Development Bank in 2014 as an alternative source of infrastructure lending, and a contingent reserve arrangement as a partial alternative to the IMF. Proposals for reducing dependence on the dollar in trade between members are discussed regularly and implemented slowly. The group expanded in 2024 to include several more states. Its internal tensions are real, particularly between India and China, who have fought over their border. It has no treaty, no secretariat and no binding decisions. Its members hold around 45 per cent of the world's population. The group held its first summit in 2009 at Yekaterinburg. Its original four members were joined by South Africa in 2010. The New Development Bank is headquartered in Shanghai. Together its members account for a large share of world output measured at purchasing power parity.

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