‘Western
finance crisis will help India boost its share of world economy’
St
Petersburg, June 08: The Western financial crisis means
the fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China
will grow their share of the world economy even faster than
originally forecast, the founder of the four-nation BRIC concept
said.
The
term BRIC was coined by Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs to
describe how the four rising economies are likely to rival
and overtake many of the West`s leading economies over the
next half century.
Jim
O`Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who originated the term
in 2003, said the financial crisis that began in US mortgage
security markets was allowing the BRIC countries to take a
bigger share of world gross domestic product.
"On
a relative basis it definitely allows the BRICs to develop
faster as they are going to take an even bigger share of GDP
sooner," O`Neill told a news agency in an interview at
an economic forum in Russia`s former imperial capital of St
Petersburg.
"This
is a financial crisis of the West and we must not forget that
of the world`s six billion people most of them are not affected
by this," he said. "I was in India four weeks ago
and there were no signs of India being affected by all of
this."
O`Neill,
head of global economic research at Goldman, said China, India
and Russia were actually growing faster than originally predicted
by his research.
"Of
the four BRICs, Russia, China and India have all grown on
average two percent more than we suggested," he said.
"It is a hell of a lot so they are now collectively 16
percent of global GDP so it is all happening a lot quicker."
The
four BRIC countries have been seeking to form a political
club to convert their growing economic power into greater
geopolitical clout.
Last
month in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, the four sought
to formalize their club at the first stand-alone meeting of
BRIC Foreign Ministers.
"I
would hope that Western leaders take note of that meeting
and start to accelerate bringing them into the G8 club and
the IMF because the world doesn`t want a separate club just
looking after the growing countries the same as it doesn`t
need an old club looking after the declining - it needs a
better club involving them both," O`Neill said.
"I
think that the lack of progress by the G8 and the Western
leaders to change is really bad and is one of the biggest
problems in the world today," he said.
O`Neill
says the combined GDP of the BRIC countries could overtake
the combined economic might of the G7.
Detractors
say optimistic predictions about the BRIC economies ignore
major hurdles to their development such as future political
instability, rampant corruption and decrepit infrastructure.
Economists
repeatedly forecast in the 1950s and 1960s that Brazil would
become one of the world`s top economic powers, only for its
once-rapid growth to stall dramatically in the debt crisis
of the 1980s and to stagnate throughout the 1990s.
Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia will become one
of the top five economies of the world by 2020, but admits
the rule of law needs to be strengthened and corruption has
to be rooted out.
O`Neill
said Russia should speed up some of its infrastructure projects
and that corruption could sap Russia`s economic potential.
"At
the core of it is a stronger self-confidence in a rule of
law that everybody likes," he said. "In some ways
Russia enjoys stability almost too much.”
"The
Russian people like stability which given Russia`s history
is very understandable and admirable but it should not come
at the expense of things which are needed for private sector
risk-taking, which are stronger property rights and a stronger
rule of law."
Bureau
Report
www.zeenews.com
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