Think Again: The BRICS.

• Author: Abrahamson, James L.

THINK AGAIN: THE BRICS

By Antoine Van Agtmael, author of The Emerging Markets Century. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/10/08/think_again_the_brics?page=full

Reviewed by James L. Abrahamson, contributing editor

Whether measured by collective population (40% of world's peoples), land mass (25% of the globe), economic size (20% of global GDP), or control of world's reserves of foreign exchange (43%), the BRICS--Brazil, Russia, India, China, and now South Africa--are major economic players and worthy of careful attention, assuming they continue the recent fast pace of their growth.

Though now members of the G-20 and, apparently beyond being labeled as part of the Third World or as simply emerging markets, the BRICS do not yet constitute a "true power bloc." Even in their own regions they are not universally recognized as "'the' leader." Nor have they negotiated their own free trade agreement or become economically cohesive.

Despite the likelihood of the group's continued but now slowing growth and its avoidance of damage from the global financial crisis, its demand for consumer goods could match that of the U.S. and the EU by...