Why is the recognition of BRICS growing in importance today?

The primary factor responsible for this shift in global perception is the rapid transfer of the economic centre of gravity from the “West” to Asia, with India and China playing leading roles, and whose significance is actually understated by standard official data.

India is the fifth largest economy in current dollar terms, but by other metrics it is much larger. Benchmarking the total economic output of countries in dollars has a long tradition. There are alternate measures for the overall value generated by an economy (GDP) such as purchasing power parity (PPP ), which take into account that some goods and services cost much less in India and other developing countries than in western countries, and their contribution to GDP can be underestimated if measured at current exchange rates.

BRICS GDP in PPP

As of 2018, the BRICS formation, as a whole, has overtaken the G7 (see figure) in economic output. A lesser known story is the huge increase in intra-global south/intra-BRICS trade and economic activity – i.e. trade and economic interdependence among themselves, vis-a-vis the western partners – with even greater potential for growth.