BRICS

BRICS is an informal grouping of major emerging economies originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in January 2024 to include Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ethiopia. The acronym was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill to describe the four largest emerging-market economies; the countries themselves adopted the label and began holding summits in 2009.

At a glance

• Founded: 2009 (First BRIC summit Yekaterinburg, Russia, 16 June 2009; South Africa joined in 2010 making it BRICS)
• Headquarters: No fixed headquarters (chairmanship rotates annually); New Development Bank in Shanghai, China
• Official languages: English

Mission

BRICS positions itself as a forum for major emerging economies to coordinate positions on global governance reform, particularly in the Bretton Woods institutions where members feel underrepresented. Practical cooperation has focused on the New Development Bank, the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, and increasingly trade in local currencies.

Structure

There is no permanent secretariat. The chairmanship rotates annually and the chair country hosts the leaders' summit. The New Development Bank, headquartered in Shanghai with regional offices in Johannesburg and São Paulo, is the bloc's principal institutional achievement — an emerging-economy alternative to the World Bank, capitalised at $50 billion initially.

Member states

BRICS has 9 member states. Membership current as of 2024-01.

• Brazil
• China
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• India
• Iran
• Russia
• South Africa
• United Arab Emirates

Key facts

• The original "BRIC" acronym (without South Africa) was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in a paper called "Building Better Global Economic BRICs" — the countries adopted the label themselves nearly a decade later.
• BRICS+ — the expanded grouping — accounts for roughly 35 percent of global GDP at purchasing-power parity and 45 percent of the world's population.
• Argentina was invited to join in August 2023 but declined under President Javier Milei after his December 2023 inauguration.
• Saudi Arabia was invited to join in January 2024 and has participated in some BRICS+ activities, but has not formally accepted membership as of mid-2024.
• The New Development Bank's lending is increasingly in members' local currencies rather than US dollars — the most concrete step toward the bloc's long-stated "de-dollarisation" goal.

Historic milestones