Raghuramapatruni R
The BRICS have emerged as a major global force in the global economic arena, with the balance of economic power shifting dramatically towards Asia over the next decades. With 43 percent of the world’s population, 46% of the global labour force, 30% of the earth’s landmass and 25% of the world share of GDP, the BRICS countries, apart from complementing their respective economies in terms of resource exchange are also the major suppliers to the industrial world. With a cumulative global trade of 20 per cent and generating more than 40 per cent of global economic growth, the BRICS countries, and India specifically as a prominent global leader in trade, are poised to strengthen their relationship through intra-BRICS trade. Between 2001 and 2014 intra-BRICS trade increased nearly 15 times. It is increasing at an average rate of 28 percent annually and currently for USD 300 bn and also the bilateral investment flows among BRICS countries are also on rise - the total FDI inflows into BRICS reached a peak of US$ 322 billion in 2013. In this context the present paper makes an attempt to assess the intensity of trade relations between the BRICS countries and further hypothesize the potentiality of commodity trade among them with respect to 14 distinct sectors. The Study observes that the BRICS countries are complimentary rather than competitive to each other in the various sectors analyzed and presents a greater potential of multilateral trading regime among them which could accelerate the South-South trade.
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