BRICS is the acronym of 5 developing countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally created as BRIC, the South Africa was added in 2010 to this economical group.
BRICS countries with 3 trillion population represents about 40% of Worlds population and is awaited (by some) to have about 40% of world economy by 2030.
Personally I would call this union a - RICh (Russia, India and China) - because they at least are situated on one continent and share a common borders (China being the central part). I haven't studied how closely is integrated economy of BRICS countries, but I believe that Russia, China and India has more to share, than Brazil and South Africa.
Anyway - they all are now under umbrella of BRICS, they all are G20 countries. So let's take a look of their overall economy now:
Gross Domestic Product in BRICS Countries 2012/2013
| 2012 $ (bln) | 2013 $ (bln) | Growth $ (bln) | % | % of Total GDP | |
| China | 8229.49 | 9240.27 | 1010.78 | 12.28 | 58.44 |
| Brazil | 2248.78 | 2245.673 | -3.107 | -0.13 | 14.20 |
| Russia | 2017.47 | 2096.777 | 79.307 | 3.93 | 13.26 |
| India | 1858.744 | 1876.797 | 18.053 | 0.97 | 11.87 |
| South Africa | 382.337 | 350.63 | -31.707 | -8.29 | 2.21 |
| 14736.821 | 15810.147 | 1073.326 | 7.28 | 100 |
Data source World Bank
- In 2013 total GDP of BRICS countries totalled in $15.8 trillions, what puts BRICS as economic union in a third place after EU ($17.3 trillions) and US ($16.8 trillions).
- BRICS countries have experienced GDP Growth by 7.28% in 2013 compared with 2012 year. Although Brazil (-0.13%) seems is in recession, while South Africa (-8.9%) is expierencing greater economic troubles.
- China is taking lions share of total GDP taking more than half of it - 58%. It has been a while, since economists are starting to predict when China will be the largest economy in World, some predict it might happen in this decade already.
- If honest, I was surprised seeing Russia bellow Brazil in this chart, the difference is not so huge, and I guess Russian economic masterminds are planing to outperform Brazil any time soon. I doubt it will happen this year, but in a little bit longer time - Russia has every chances to outperform Brazil.
- India - it has a great potential, but for now - although their economy is in TOP 10 largest, it's still very poor country.
- South Africa is the smallest economy of BRICS - making modest 2.2% of Total GDP. Seems there is some economic problems in South Africa for last years, in 2013 economy of South Africa decreased by huge 8.9%
Now, I would like to see data for GDP per capita in BRICS countries, so I will make another chart:
| 2012 | 2013 | Growth | 0% | |
| Russia | 14.091 | 14.612 | 0.52 | 3.69 |
| Brazil | 11.32 | 11.208 | -0.11 | -0.98 |
| China | 6.093 | 6.807 | 0.71 | 11.71 |
| South Africa | 7.314 | 6.618 | -0.69 | -9.51 |
| India | 1.503 | 1.499 | -0.004 | -0.26 |
Data source: World bank
Well as from this data source we can see that Russia holds highest GDP per capita in BRICS countries, followed by Brazil.
China, South Africa and India has GDP per capita less than $10 thousands.
Depending on future developments in those countries - depends much - will they become 40% of Worlds economy. Place for growth in those countries are huge.
What is your thoughts of BRICS? Please share your opinion in comments!