Is the BRIC concept still relevant ?

Here is an interesting view on the concept of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) by Milton Ezrati, senior economist at Lord Abett.

The whole concept behind the BRIC, that these four countries were leaders, is no longer the case today," said Ezrati, who published a report this week titled, "Broken BRIC."

You can watch Ezrati's interview with MarketWatch.com.



It is true that the BRIC concept is as much a marketing invention, coined by Goldman Sachs economists for promoting emerging markets, , as it is a research concept.

However, contrary to Ezrati's view, and although BRICs may be suffering from the financial crisis at various levels of intensity, I still believe the BRIC concept holds much of its explanatory power as an easy way to describe the long term rise of these four large regional emerging powers. No other emerging country can challenge these 4 countries leadership in the "emerging markets universe".

Ezrati is right when he points out at the existence of other emerging countries that should not be excluded from an emerging markets investment strategy.