BRICS

Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

BRICS Federative Republic of Brazil President (head of state and government): Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Russian Federation President (head of state): Vladimir Putin Prime Minister (head of government): Mikhail Mishustin Republic of India President (head of state): Ram Nath Kovind Prime Minister (head of government): Narendra Modi People's Republic of China President (head of state): Xi Jinping Premier (head of government): Li Keqiang Republic of South Africa President (head of state): Cyril Ramaphosa GDP (PPP) Total : $18,486 billion (2010 estimate) China $10,084 billion India$4,001 billion Russia $2,219 billion Brazil $2,182 billion GDP (nominal) Total : $10,676 billion (2010 estimate) China $5,745 billion Brazil $2,024 billion Russia $1,477 billion India$1,430 billion Area Total : 38,518,338 km2 (2010 estimate) Russia 17,075,400 km2 China 9,640,821 km2 Brazil 8,514,877 km2 India3,287,240 km2 Population Total : 2,851,302,297 (2010 estimate) China 1,336,970,000 India1,179,618,000 Brazil 192,787,000 Russia 141,927,297

BRICS is an acronym used to talk about the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Many economists think that all these countries are at a similar stage of economic development. When people write about these countries, they usually write "BRICS" or the "BRICS countries".

The acronym was invented by Jim O'Neill, an economist who worked for Goldman Sachs. In 2001, O'Neill wrote an article that he called "Building Better Global Economic BRICs".

Mexico and South Korea were the only other countries with economies that are like the BRICs. O'Neill did not include these countries because they were considered already more developed, as they were already members of the OECD.

Current leaders

• 

  Brazil
  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
  President of Brazil

• 

  Russia
  Vladimir Putin,
  President

• 

  India
  Narendra Modi,
  Prime Minister

• 

  China
  Xi Jinping,
  President

• 

  South Africa
  Cyril Ramaphosa,
  President

Bibliography

• Elder, Miriam, and Leahy, Joe, et al., Who's who: Bric leaders take their place at the top table, Financial Times, London, September 25, 2008
• O'Neill, Jim, BRICs could point the way out of the Economic Mire, Financial Times, London, September 23, 2008, p. 28.
• Mark Kobayashi-Hillary (2008). Building a Future with BRICs: The Next Decade for Offshoring. Springer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-540-46453-2.
• Julien Vercueil (2010-09-03). Les pays émergents: Brésil-Russie-Inde-Chine... Mutations économiques et nouveaux défis. Editions Bréal. ISBN 978-2-7495-0957-0.