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The five BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - are hardly similar in most respects. Even their recent economic fortunes vary widely.
As Table 1 shows, growth in Brazil, Russia and South Africa has been very weak. China has had high growth and low inflation;
As Table 2 shows, all the others have had problems with inflation, especially recently.
Interest rates are also widely divergent, as Table 3 reveals.
Nobody has a major debt problem, but the gap between Russia and China and the others in Table 4 is nevertheless wide.
When it comes to setting up something like the BRICS Bank, Table 5 reveals clearly who has the deep pockets.
Even the total market capitalisation of the various national stock markets tells the same story, in Table 6.
The only place where China does not dominate is in recent stock price moves, as shown in Table 7.
