Twenty-two years ago, when then Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jim O’Neill coined the term “BRIC”—an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, and China—to highlight the growth potential of the four countries, he may not have imagined how their rise would reshape the global economy and global governance.
BRIC was later expanded to BRICS, with South Africa becoming the fifth member in December 2010. It now represents about a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and about 40 percent of the world’s population. According to UK-based research firm Acorn Macro Consulting, BRICS is now the largest GDP group in the world in terms of purchasing power parity, which is a measure of the price of specific goods in different countries and is used to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries’ currencies.
On August 22-24, the 15th BRICS Summit took place in Johannesburg, South Africa’s most populous city. The event brought together Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Sandton Convention Centre, with Russian
