Tomas Hult, Byington Endowed Chair and Professor of International Business at Michigan State University, is the author of the attached article, which was published in The Conversation.

Back in 2001, former Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill coined the acronym BRIC to highlight the immense economic potential of the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China in the decades to come. They would be the economic engines of tomorrow, he wrote.

The BRICs, which cover a quarter of the world’s landmass and contain 40% of its population, had a combined GDP of US $20 trillion back in 2001. Today these increasingly market-oriented economies boast a GDP of $30 trillion (or 20% of global GDP), a figure forecast to reach $120 trillion by 2050. Together, they control more than 43% of the world’s currency reserves and 20% of its trade..

But times have changed. Every BRIC country is struggling, and the group’s growing footprint means their problems are bad news for the global economy. That’s especially true for the troubles of China, where recent economic gloom triggered a rout in stock markets around the world. All but India’s is now in bear market territory – a decline of at least 20% from its peak.

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