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Emerging markets on a global scale
The four countries comprising the largest emerging markets are Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), and account for more than 25 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP), make up 40 per cent of the world’s population and include 2.8 billion people (Global Sherpa, 2017). These four BRIC countries cover more than a quarter of the world’s land area and span across three continents. The demographics and population of these countries have a significant impact on the potential for future growth. In the early 2000s, Goldman Sachs predicted all four countries would be in the top ten largest economies by 2050, predicting China first, India third, Brazil fifth and Russia sixth.
In the BRIC countries, GDP has grown significantly over the past several years and compared to the rest of the world, BRIC countries have experience a much higher growth rate in the past decade. China has the largest GDP of the four BRIC countries, but all have experienced GDP growth. While the world’s growth rate has averaged 0-5 per cent, BRIC countries have consistently been above the world’s average. China and India represent the “rapid growth team”, while the other BRIC countries represent the “normal growth team” (Egawa, 2014). One indicator that proves the economic growth and positive state of the BRIC economies is the unemployment rate in the society. Unemployment rates in BRIC countries are lower than, or almost equal to, those in major industrial countries. As of the available data through the end of 2015, the highest unemployment rate among the BRIC countries is in India at 7 per cent and Brazil at 6.4 per cent, but China is one of the lowest among all countries at 4.2 per cent (Statista, 2017). It is evident the BRIC countries experienced economic growth over the past several years, but in recent years the growth rate in these countries has slowed – partly a result of the global financial crisis. For example, China’s growth rate reached a high of 15 per cent a few years ago, but was only about 8 per cent in 2013 (Follath and Hesse, 2014). India’s economic expansion dropped from 10 per cent to less than 5 per cent in 2013, and Brazil’s growth...