BRIC to become economic leader in new decade: Goldman

A new decade started in the year 2010 will witness a radical re-distribution of forces in the world economy.

The present-day leader, the financial Group 7 made up of the leading Western countries will be replaced by the BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

This conclusion has been drawn by Goldman Sachs, one of the leading US banks, in a report. Goldman Sachs believes that by 2020, the BRIC countries will become the most attractive market for world investors.

According to the calculations made by Goldman Sachs, the BRIC group has reached the needed pace already for occupying the leading positions in the world economy.

Starting from the autumn of 2001, the growth rate of the share market of the four countries, integrated in the BRIC group, was higher than the overall figure for a group of countries with new markets and developing economies.

During the period under review, the MSCI BRIC Index grew by 367 per cent, as against the growth of 134 per cent registered in the 22 main developing countries, integrated in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

At the same time, the growth rate of the share market of 23 industrially developed countries of the West, integrated in the MSCI World Index, was only 17 per cent.

According to Jim O'Neil, the leading analyst of Goldman Sachs, "a unique situation has taken shape on the world markets. This happens no more than once in a generation. The world is on the threshold of the redistribution of global economic forces."