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Brics at A Glance
Brics at A Glance
Brics at A Glance
South Africa
South Africa is the smallest Brics country. Sluggish growth is a striking and enduring feature of the economy, affecting the capacity to create jobs and reverse the extremely high unemployment rate of 24.9%. The International Monetary Fund forecasts a growth rate of 3.6% for this year. However, based on recent lacklustre economic performance, domestic estimates are lower and hover at 2.5%. Weaknesses in the global economy, and domestic structural constraints and policy limitations, are blamed for South Africas perennial inability to break through the 6% growth mark. The largest problems remain slow growth, high unemployment, infrastructure backlogs, public capacity to implement policy changes and ingrained structural weaknesses
Russia
Russia has come a long way since the days of the communist Soviet Union. In 2011, it became the worlds leading oil producer and overtook Middle Eastern petrogiants like Saudi Arabia. It experienced severe declines in economic performance in the early to mid-2000s. But in 2008/09, the economy began to pick up. It has reduced its budget deficit, unemployment has plunged to record lows and inflation has been progressively lowered. But it still needs to deal with corruption, oil dependence and an underinvestment in infrastructure. After joining the World Trade Organisation, a deeper integration into the world economy is expected
India
India has become the worlds 10th-largest economy over a decade and a half. But its economic ambitions were thwarted last year by the underperformance of the complex mixed economy. Economic growth began loosing steam in 2011. This trend continued throughout 2012. The weakening trend was triggered initially by tight monetary policies intended to address persistent inflation and a decline in investments due to loss of confidence in the economic climate. The burden of investor pessimism borne by India is not only due to lack of confidence in domestic economic reforms, but also to the global financial crisis
China
While China is the secondlargest economy in the world, it remains a developing country in terms of per capita income. China, with per capita income languishing at $4 940, is ranked 114 in the world. With 170 million people still living below the $1.25 a day international poverty line, China has the second-largest number of poor people in the world after India. Poverty reduction remains a challenge. Double-digit growth has been a feature of the economy and the country eclipsed Japan as the worlds second-largest economy in 2001. But China needs to fight inflation and entrenched, and find an appropriate level at which to peg the internationalised renminbi
Brazil
After a lacklustre economic performance, Brazil is showing signs of recovery due to a slew of expansionary measures taken by the government to stimulate the economy. A recent 1.4% expansion in GDP has been recorded. The economy underperformed notably last year. In the last quarter of 2012, retail sales and industrial production buoyed the economy, and a solid 2.5% upward movement in industrial output was registered. Even though inflation inched up in the last quarter of 2012, evidence of improvement abounds. Concerns about the wide income and wealth gaps continue, as do niggles about the growing trade deficit
Pretoria Moscow
Delhi
Beijing
Brasilia
President: Jacob Zuma Gross domestic product CPI inflation rate Current account to GDP Unemployment rate 2.10% 5.90% 6.30% 24.9%
President: Vladimir Putin Gross domestic product CPI inflation rate Current account to GDP Unemployment rate 5.6% 7.30% 5.50% 5.80%
Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh Gross domestic product CPI inflation rate Current account to GDP Unemployment rate 5.3% 7.18% 4.1% 9.4%
President: Xi Jinping Gross domestic product CPI inflation rate Current account to GDP Unemployment rate 7.9% 3.8% 4.0% 4.10 %
President: Dilma Rousseff Gross domestic product CPI inflation rate Current account to GDP Unemployment rate 7.5% 5.40% 2.40% 5.6%
Population: 48 million
Some analysts predict that Brics could become as big as the Group of seven (US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy) by 2027
Brics countries have increased their share of global GDP threefold in the past 15 years Brics combined foreign reserves are estimated at $4 trillion
2020
2030
World GDP
2013
2030
They are home to 45% of the worlds population The contribution to global economic growth over the past decade has reached 50%, which makes this group of states the leading power in global economic development Brics countries account for 17% of world trade
Q
Brics accounted for approximately 11% of global annual foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in 2012 ($465 billion)
50%
17%
South Africa has a population of more than 50 million and an economy worth approximately $527 billion. Its per capita income level at PPP compares favourably with Brics partners, estimated at $11 000