Five charts to start your day

The rise of the Global South

Good Morning! Hope you had a well-rested weekend. If you have never heard of BRICS that's understandable. It makes as much sense as a solar powered torch.

But that’s what the first chart – or infographic – is about. It’s brilliantly executed by Visual Capitalist and it’s worth a moment’s thought.

BRICs, if you don’t know, was a term coined by Jim O'Neill, a British economist, in 2001 while he was the head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs.

In short, it’s the collective acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China. Fast-forward 20 years and BRICs is now a political cooperative of emerging markets that hail from these countries.

The group now expects to welcome six new members by 2024 in what is now termed BRICs+. And this includes countries from the oil-rich Middle East.

So what’s the goal of doing this?

BRICs+ aims to counterbalance traditional Western dominance. It opens doors for wider representation and cooperation. There is certainly an agenda behind all this.

For instance, China, Brazil and Russia are pushing hard for de-dollarisation. They want to reduce the global reliance on the US dollar for their own personal reasons. The block also wants to be a counterpart to the G7’s influence and create a shift in global economic power.

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1. The global south is expanding

Source: Visual Capitalist

BRICs+ could lead to a reshaping of international alliances, norm, and institutions. We could see a shift towards a more multipolar world.

Here, power will be shared more broadly. It will challenge the existing status quo. It might also pave the way for a more balanced global order or create new geopolitical tensions and war.

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