The Rise of BRICS Economies Beyond the Sway of the US and Europe

Special Report

Published: January 31, 2024 2:29 pm

BRIC was founded in 2009 with a mission to counter Western global economic dominance and to give increased power to emerging nations. The original BRIC members were Brazil, Russia, India, and China, who held their first summit during the last major global economic crisis in 2009. A year later, South Africa signed up, adding the “S” to BRICS. The original acronym was coined in 2001 by former Goldman Sachs economist and former U.K. Treasury Minister Jim O’Neill.

As of January 1, five additional nations will join the BRICS alliance. During the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in August 2023, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Ethiopia were invited to the group. A sixth country, Argentina, was also invited to join but new president Javier Milei declined the invitation in December. Although several other countries have recently applied for BRICS membership, including Venezuela, Vietnam, Thailand, Cuba, and Bahrain. If accepted, the influence and economic heft of the BRICS will grow even further.

Although there is no new name change yet to accommodate the new nations added, what was once BRIC, is now being referred to as BRIC+, and with this recent expansion, nearly 3.5 billion people, or about 45% of the world’s population are now part of the organization. China and India alone account for over 35% of the world’s population. These countries together hold 29% of global gross domestic product, 22% of exports, and 42% of global oil output.

By comparison, the Group of Seven nations and the European Union make up 1 billion people, or about 12.7% of the world’s population. However, they hold 51% of global GDP and 47% of exports. The U.S. alone accounts for a quarter of the world’s GDP, while the EU accounts for over 16%. G7 nations (without the EU) produce 27% of global oil output, but most of this comes from the United States. (Also see, the most innovative countries.)

The 10 countries of BRICS+ have much higher rates of population growth, though the average life expectancy is far lower compared to the Western G7 and EU nations. While G7 and EU countries all have a life expectancy above 80 years, except for the U.S. which is 79, all 10 BRICS nations have a life expectancy below 79 years. The expanded countries are also more authoritarian and corrupt, according to two widely used measures. GDP per capita, often used as an indicator of the standard of living in a country, is also far lower in most expanded BRICS group countries than in the G7 and EU nations. (This is the richest country in the world.)

24/7 Wall St. reviewed several measures from different sources to compare how BRICS economies have moved beyond the sway of the US and Europe, individually and as a group. 2022 population, 10-year population growth, 2022 gross domestic product and GDP per capita in current U.S. dollars, exports in current U.S. dollars, and 2021 average life expectancy at birth came from the World Bank.

Oil production for 2022 in million barrels per day (Mb/d) came from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries on a score of 0 to 100 with lower values denoting more corruption. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index ranks countries on a scale of 1 to 10, with higher scores denoting more representative forms of government.

Here is the rise of BRICS economies beyond the sway of the US and Europe