Brics economic power: 40% of global GDP, half the world’s population

Brics has grown from a four-country grouping representing just over a fifth of the global economy at the start of the century into an 11-member bloc that now accounts for around 40 per cent of global GDP and 49.5 per cent of the world’s population, giving it a growing role in trade, energy, finance and the wider economic order.

The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia also accounts for about 26 per cent of global trade, according to data cited by the Indian government during its 2026 Brics chairship.

Its economic significance goes beyond the headline GDP number. Brics includes China and India, two of the world’s largest economies and most populous countries; major energy exporters such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the UAE; and major commodity and agricultural producers including Brazil and Russia.

The bloc is now trying to turn that scale into greater economic cooperation by expanding trade among members, building more resilient supply chains, increasing the use of local currencies and developing cross-border payment mechanisms that could reduce transaction costs and reliance on existing financial infrastructure.

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From Wall Street acronym to major economic grouping

The term Bric was coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001 for Brazil, Russia, India and China. Bric became an intergovernmental grouping later. The four countries began formal political coordination in 2006 and held their first leaders’ summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. South Africa joined in 2011, turning Bric into Brics.

The grouping then underwent its biggest expansion. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE joined in 2024, while Indonesia became the 11th full member in January 2025. Brazil, which held the Brics presidency in 2025, formally announced Indonesia’s accession and said the move took the group to 11 full members.

India is chairing Brics in 2026.

What 40% of global GDP actually means

The International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook, published in July 2026, projects global growth at 3.3 per cent in 2026 and puts India among the fastest-growing major economies, while China is projected to grow 4.6 per cent. Indonesia is projected at 5 per cent, Brazil at 2.4 per cent, Russia at 1.1 per cent and South Africa at 1.1 per cent.

China supplies enormous manufacturing capacity and remains the bloc’s largest economy. India combines a huge domestic market with relatively rapid growth. Brazil is a major agricultural and commodity exporter. Russia and the Gulf members bring energy and raw-material strength.

Half of humanity, but very different levels of wealth

The 11 members represent 49.5 per cent of the world’s population, according to the Indian government. China and India account for the overwhelming share of that population, while Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Iran also provide large domestic markets.

For businesses, that translates into a potentially enormous consumer base.

But population should not be confused with purchasing power. The economic differences among Brics members are wide. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have high per-capita incomes and large pools of capital, while India, Egypt and Ethiopia have substantially lower per-capita incomes but much larger populations and considerable long-term growth potential. That mix gives Brics scale, but not uniform economic strength.

Trade is becoming more important inside the group

One of the clearest areas where Brics is trying to turn size into practical economic power is trade. The Indian Commerce Ministry said in May that intra-Brics merchandise trade reached $1.17 trillion in 2024, up nearly 13 times from $84 billion in 2003.

The growth has been faster than the expansion of global trade over the same period. Yet for a bloc representing around 40 per cent of global GDP, intra-Brics trade remains relatively modest. That gap is one of the main reasons economic integration has become a priority.

The 16th Brics Trade Ministers’ Meeting in Jaipur in August 2026 pushed this agenda further. Ministers advanced work on a Strategy for Brics Economic Partnership 2030, covering trade in services, digital economy, industry, innovation and technology, investment, financial cooperation and sustainable development.

The meeting also endorsed a Global Value Chains Action Plan for 2026-30, with proposals including cooperation on strategic supply chains and investment promotion.

A bigger role in global value chains

The bloc’s economic agenda is therefore moving beyond conventional trade.

Under India’s 2026 chairship, members have discussed ways to make supply chains more resilient and diversified, improve trade finance for small businesses and increase cross-border trade in digitally delivered services.

At the Jaipur meeting, Brics ministers also adopted the Jaipur Consensus and principles for credit assessment of export-oriented micro, small and medium enterprises.

The objective is to improve access to trade finance by relying more on the cash flows of smaller exporters instead of traditional requirements for collateral and assets.

The move is significant because the global trade-finance gap is estimated at about $2.5 trillion, much of it affecting smaller businesses in emerging markets.

The dollar question: New payment rails

Brics’ financial agenda has attracted the most attention because of its discussion around de-dollarisation. But the reality is more limited than some political rhetoric suggests.

Brics members are not currently negotiating a common Brics currency. Instead, their focus has been on increasing the use of national currencies for trade and investment, improving payment connectivity and examining alternatives that could make cross-border settlements faster and cheaper.

The issue has been part of Brics discussions for several years. The 2024 Kazan Declaration called for continued work on local currencies, payment instruments and platforms, as well as consideration of a possible cross-border settlement and depositary infrastructure known as Brics Clear.

The 2025 Rio de Janeiro Declaration went further, tasking finance ministers and central bank governors to continue work on the Brics Cross-Border Payments Initiative and recognising the work of the Brics Payment Task Force on greater interoperability among national payment systems.

The Observer Research Foundation said that the practical question for Brics is less whether it can create an alternative reserve currency and more whether it can develop alternative payment rails that reduce vulnerabilities in the existing international financial architecture.

Another ORF analysis noted that economic and geopolitical differences between Brics members make a common currency difficult, while local-currency trade and interoperable digital payments are more realistic areas for cooperation.

Brazil’s Brics officials made the same distinction during its 2025 presidency, saying a common currency was not under discussion and that the focus was on reducing the cost of transactions through local currencies and payment platforms.

Why de-dollarisation is easier said than done

Reducing the role of the dollar in trade is not simply a political decision. The dollar remains deeply embedded in global finance, including foreign-exchange markets, international debt and commodity pricing.

For Brics, the practical problem is that using local currencies for bilateral trade can create new risks. Exporters and importers need liquid currency markets, hedging instruments, settlement mechanisms and sufficient confidence that a currency can be converted when required.

ORF has highlighted precisely these constraints, noting that local-currency trade can face higher transaction costs and financial-infrastructure limitations.

That is why a gradual shift towards local-currency settlement and interoperable payment systems is more plausible than the sudden emergence of a Brics currency.

Energy is one of Brics’ biggest sources of leverage

Brics’ power also comes from what its members produce. The expanded group includes four major oil-producing economies — Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the UAE — along with two of the world’s largest energy-consuming countries, China and India.

Official Brics data cited by the grouping puts its members’ combined share at 43.6 per cent of global oil production and 36 per cent of natural gas production. It also estimates that the group accounts for 78.2 per cent of global mineral coal production.

The significance is not that Brics acts as a single energy cartel. It does not. The significance is that the world’s major energy producers and some of its largest consumers now sit within the same political-economic forum.

That creates room for cooperation on investment, energy security, infrastructure and payments even when national energy policies differ.

Critical minerals add strategic weight

The grouping also has an important position in critical minerals. Brics data puts its share of global rare-earth reserves at about 72 per cent.

The importance of such resources has increased as countries invest in electric vehicles, batteries, renewable energy, semiconductors and defence technologies.

But mineral reserves alone do not create market control. Processing and refining capacity can be just as important as ownership of deposits. Supply chains can also cross countries that are outside Brics.

The opportunity for the grouping, therefore, lies in moving from raw-material strength towards processing, manufacturing, technology and investment partnerships.

Digital economy is becoming a new pillar

Economic cooperation within Brics is also moving into digital infrastructure. During India’s 2026 chairship, member countries have worked on digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, future communications networks and digital governance.

At a Brics ICT meeting in Pune in August, members discussed digital public infrastructure as well as AI, next-generation networks, industry and the integration of digital ecosystems.

This opens another area of potential cooperation for India. India has sought to position its Digital Public Infrastructure experience, including systems such as UPI, as part of wider Global South cooperation.

The appeal for other Brics economies is not simply technological. Interoperable digital systems can reduce the cost and time involved in payments, trade documentation, financial inclusion and public-service delivery.

Finance is another building block

Brics has also been building institutions of its own. The New Development Bank, headquartered in Shanghai, was established in 2015 to finance infrastructure and sustainable-development projects.

The bank’s authorised capital is $100 billion and its role has become more important as Brics members seek financing mechanisms that are more responsive to developing-country priorities.

The bloc has also established the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, a $100 billion framework designed to provide liquidity support during short-term balance-of-payments pressures.

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in August 2026 stressed the importance of the NDB in mobilising private capital, saying Brics economies face common structural constraints in bringing private investment into infrastructure and development at scale.

The financial architecture remains much smaller than the IMF and World Bank systems, but Brics is gradually constructing institutions that give its economic agenda greater permanence.

India’s 2026 agenda: trade, supply chains and technology

India’s chairship has put the economic agenda firmly around practical cooperation.

At the Jaipur trade ministers’ meeting, New Delhi prioritised four areas: strengthening the multilateral trading system, building resilient and diversified global value chains, improving trade finance and internationalising MSMEs, and facilitating cross-border digitally delivered services.

The members also moved towards finalising the Strategy for Brics Economic Partnership 2030.

That strategy is intended to provide a framework for cooperation across the multilateral trading system, services, the digital economy, industry and technology, trade and investment, finance and sustainable development.

At the same time, work on common standards is gaining ground.

In July, Brics national standards bodies moved towards greater cooperation on standards and quality infrastructure, including discussion of standards for artificial intelligence. The stated objective is to make trade and technology cooperation easier by reducing regulatory and technical barriers.

The limitation: Brics is powerful, but not unified

The numbers give Brics substantial economic weight. Turning that into collective leverage is a different matter.

The grouping has no common currency, no customs union, no single market and no supranational authority.

Its members range from large manufacturing economies to energy exporters, agricultural powers and lower-income developing countries.

Some are strategic competitors. China and India, for example, have enormous trade ties but also significant geopolitical and economic differences.

That diversity is both Brics’ strength and its weakness.

It allows the group to bring together a wide range of emerging economies and commodity producers. But it also makes deep economic integration difficult.

The Observer Research Foundation has similarly argued that Brics’ greatest opportunity lies in practical cooperation in trade, investment, connectivity, minerals and logistics rather than assuming that political alignment automatically produces economic integration.

From 23% to 40%

The transformation nevertheless is significant. In 2000, Brazil, Russia, India and China accounted for 23.3 per cent of global GDP on a PPP basis.

Today, the expanded 11-member Brics accounts for around 40 per cent of global GDP, almost half of the world’s population and roughly a quarter of global trade, according to Indian government figures.

Its members occupy important positions in energy, agriculture, minerals, manufacturing and digital technology.

The next question is whether that economic scale can be translated into deeper trade, more investment and greater financial connectivity.

For now, Brics is not a single economic power comparable to the European Union or a monetary union.

It is something different: a large and increasingly influential coalition of emerging and developing economies with enough economic weight to shape discussions on trade, finance, energy and global economic governance.

Its evolution from a Goldman Sachs acronym into an 11-country forum is already a measure of how much the global economic balance has changed.

Its next phase will be judged not by how large its members are separately, but by how much of that combined weight they can make work together.