Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Africa, has an economy which is just slightly larger than that of Greece.
Second, all six countries have undergone fundamental structural upheav-
als and transformations over the last two decades. Third, the role played
by multinational investment in all six countries has increased dramatically
over recent years. Fourth, as we will see below, the role played by agglom-
eration processes has also significantly increased in all six countries in the
latest periods. The economic geography of restructuring is very apparent
in each case.
If we consider the growth performance of the BRIICS countries during
the current phase of globalization we see that China and India are cur-
rently the two fastest growing large economies in the world, with 2005
growth rates of 10.2 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively (World Bank
2007). The third fastest growing large economy is Russia, with a growth
rate of 6.4 per cent. In 2005, Indonesia's growth rate has picked up again
to 5.6 per cent, South Africa's growth was 4.9 per cent, while that of
Brazil was 2.3 per cent (World Bank 2007). If we consider the scale of the
individual BRIICS economies, we also see that the relative rankings are
rather different. China's gross national income in 2005 was $2269.7bn,
which ranked it as the world's fifth largest economy, almost identical in
size to that of the UK; India's economy was some $804.4bn, and ranked
as the tenth largest in the world, just slightly larger than that of Korea;
the economy of Russia, at $638.1bn, was ranked 16th in the world, just
slightly smaller than the economy of the Netherlands (World Bank 2007).
Brazil, with a 2005 gross national income of $662bn, was ranked as 14th;
Indonesia, with an economy of $282.2bn, was in the 23rd position, and
South Africa, with a gross national income of $223.5bn, was ranked as the
27th largest economy in the world. On the other hand, if we consider per
capita income rather than gross income, the rankings are very different
again. South Africa, with a 2005 per capita income of $4770, was ranked
85th in the world; Russia, with $4460, was 90th, Brazil, with $3550, was
96th; China, with $1740 per capita, was ranked 128th; Indonesia, whose
per capita income was $1280, occupied the 139th position; while India,
with an income per capita of just $730, was ranked 158th in the world
(World Bank 2007).
From observation of the growth rates of these countries, we see that
the growth performance of the three largest BRIICS economies of China,
India and Russia has been both higher and also more consistent over a
longer period than for the other three BRIICS countries of Indonesia,
South Africa and Brazil. These observed differences in both scale and
growth rates suggest that it is the three larger BRIICS countries that are
currently benefiting the most from the changes in the world's economic
relations taking place under the current phase of globalization. These
