Do Country Acronyms have a Meaningful Place in a Dynamic World?

March 10, 2012 by Daniel Wagner

Dmitry Medvedev in New Delhi for BRICS Summit. Image via Kremlin’s Press Office

When Goldman Sachs first coined the term “BRICs” in 2001, it did so on the assumption that these four countries were going to heavily influence the direction of the global economy. It turned out that China was much more influential than any of the other three, and that Brazil well underperformed the others based on its decade-long average GDP growth rate of approximately 3.5%.  Since then, the dynamics of the global economy have continued to change significantly, with the rise of ‘the rest’ becoming a dominant feature of the landscape.

So, just how relevant and useful are acronyms in defining the likelihood of growth and influence of countries in today’s constantly evolving world?

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