The repositioning of the large emerging economies in the world economy

Over the past decade the emerging economies have grown much faster than the developed economies and, as a result, their share of world GDP and their relative weight in most economic, trade and financial variables have increased substantially. The most recent projections suggest this trend will continue in the coming years. The economic and financial crisis –which hit the advanced economies hardest, while the emerging economies showed notable resilience to its effects– has accelerated the rise in importance of the emerging economies. Moreover, the crisis has brought significant changes in world economic governance, most notably the replacement of the G7 by the G20 as the forum providing international leadership in economic matters. The accompanying map depicts the main groups of countries mentioned in this article. These developments have given rise to new actors of crucial importance on the global stage (most notably China) and have consolidated the status of the group of large emerging economies formed by India, Brazil and Russia, in addition to China –the so-called BRICs [O´Neil (2001)]– which recently has even taken steps along the path to institutionalisation. The countries of this group have an increasing weight in the world economy and, in general, high growth potential, although they also exhibit significant productive, trade, financial and institutional differences. Overall, these events can be interpreted as signs that the world is moving towards a more multipolar international economic order in which the emerging countries will have –and in fact the BRICs already have– an ever larger and more important role. This article seeks to put into perspective and calibrate the growing share of the emerging economies, particularly the BRICs, in the world economy. It also examines the changes in these economies’ participation in the main fora and key institutions of world economic government and whether their greater presence in these fora has been accompanied by the assumption of greater responsibility. For this purpose, following is a brief description of the position adopted by these countries on certain key subjects in the global sphere, such as the stability of the international monetary system, international trade and climate change.