BRICS

BRICS is an acronym used to talk about the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. Many economists think that all these countries are at a similar stage of economic development. When people write about these countries, they usually write "BRICS" or the "BRICS countries".

The acronym was invented by Jim O'Neill, an economist who worked for Goldman Sachs.  In 2001, O'Neill wrote an article that he called "Building Better Global Economic BRICs".Global Economics Paper No. 99, Dreaming with BRICs  and Global Economics Paper 134, How Solid Are the BRICs?''Economist's Another BRIC in the wall 2008 article

Mexico and South Korea were the only other countries with economies that are like the BRICs. O'Neill did not include these countries because they were considered already more developed, as they were already members of the OECD.

They also proposed to have a “partnership model” for other countries and talked about starting a common currency. They planned to use the US dollar less.

Countries that are called "partnership countries"
These countries could gain full membership later, but they are not full members. As of 2025's second quarter:

Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Leaders
Leaders as of 2025's first quarter

Countries that have applied for membership
A total of 15 countries have formally applied to join BRICS, listed as follows:
  (applied in 2022) (Expected to join in next expansion)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)
  (applied in 2023)

References

Bibliography
 Elder, Miriam, and Leahy, Joe, et al., Who's who: Bric leaders take their place at the top table, Financial Times, London, September 25, 2008
 O'Neill, Jim, BRICs could point the way out of the Economic Mire, Financial Times, London, September 23, 2008, p. 28.



Category:International organizations
Category:Economics organizations
Category:Economy of Africa
Category:Economy of Asia
Category:Economy of South America
Category:Economy of Brazil
Category:Economy of India
Category:Economy of Russia
Category:Economy of South Africa
Category:China