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".

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

File:Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.jpg|alt=BrazilLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva,President of Brazil|'***Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,President of Brazil
File:Vladimir Putin (2017-07-08).jpg|alt=RussiaVladimir Putin,President|****Vladimir Putin,President
File:PM Modi Portrait(cropped).jpg|alt=IndiaNarendra Modi,Prime Minister|****Narendra Modi,Prime Minister
File:Xi Jinping 2019.jpg|alt=ChinaXi Jinping,President|****Xi Jinping,President
File:2019 Reunião Informal do BRICS - 48142657142 (cropped).jpg|alt=South AfricaCyril Ramaphosa,President|****Cyril Ramaphosa,President
File:Khamenei 2023.jpeg|****Seyed Ali Khamenei,Supreme Leader|alt=IranSeyed Ali Khamenei,Supreme Leader
File:PM in a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Mr. Ably Ahmed during the 15th BRICS Summit at Johannesburg, in South Africa on August 24, 2023 (cropped).jpg|**Ethiopia**Abiy Ahmed,Prime Minister 
File:Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2017.jpg|****Abdel Fattah el-Sisi,President|alt=EgyptAbdel Fattah el-Sisi,President
File:Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan - 2024 (cropped).jpg|***'Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,President|alt=United Arab EmiratesMohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,President

## 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.&nbsp;28.
* 
*