Economic Themes (2009) 47 (2) 2, 27-42

BRIC COUNTRIES – POTENTIAL AND PROSPECTS


Ljubodrag Savić

Abstract: An acronym BRIC was fist mentioned in 2001 by Jim O’Neil, an analyst of the Goldman Sachs Bank. BRIC refers to four large world countries (Brasil, Russia, India and China), which have achieved an impressive growth in the last few decades. Two millennia ago, India and China were the centres of the world civilization. These countries failed to keep pace with industrial and world capitalism rapid development two hundred or two hundred and fifty years ago. Till the First World War, the countries leading in their global power became the most developed in Europe. After the Second World War and especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the modern period of development has been marked by the dominance of an only world super power – the United States of America. Globalization has significantly changed the world. Although it served the most developed countries best, it strongly stimulated the development of the formerly inactive world giants, among which are certainly the BRIC countries. Enormous potential and results achieved in the past few decades will probably very rapidly and considerably change the world image of wealth and global power. Are the predictions and expectations concerning the BRIC countries actually realistic?

Keywords:  BRIC countries; globalization; development; predictions; prospects

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