The world of finance gave birth in 2001 to a new buzzword: BRIC. The word is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China. Jim O'Neill, an economist with Goldman Sachs who's been credited with coining the term, saw those four countries as turbo-charged engines among emerging markets, ones that would give Western economies a run for their money.
O'Neill says when he dreamed up the acronym 13 years ago, people didn't really focus on the potential importance of some of these countries.
"It sort of transformed ... the way, I think, many people thought about the world," he says now.
For a stretch, the fast-growing BRIC economies lived up to the hype. The four countries formed their own economic and political alliance. In 2010, South Africa joined the group.
But O'Neill considered it an interloper, saying South Africa isn't at the same level as the others. The four original BRIC countries were his babies, but like many children, they can disappoint.
"China is the only one of the four that's growing by more than I ever assumed, the other three so far this decade have been disappointing," says O'Neill, particularly Brazil and Russia. "I have joked that if I had to dream the acronym up again today, I'd just call it 'C,'" he says.
While the BRIC engines may be misfiring, other economies have been gaining speed. O'Neill has now come up with a new group of promising emerging markets.
He's coined them M-I-N-T.
"It stands for Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey," he says.
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