Trustnet Magazine 70 February 2021 | Page 4

As China goes from strength to strength , Anthony Luzio finds out what happened to Brazil , Russia and India
Cover story
4 / 5
As China goes from strength to strength , Anthony Luzio finds out what happened to Brazil , Russia and India

Broken BRICs

When Goldman Sachs closed its

BRICs Equity Portfolio fund last November , it marked the turning of a full circle . In November 2001 , the group ’ s then chief economist Jim O ’ Neill had published a report titled “ Building Better Global Economic BRICs ”, coining the acronym for the four countries that it claimed would reshape the world economy : Brazil , Russia , India and China . Never slow to piggyback on a potential money spinner , the asset management industry duly launched fund after fund focused on the foursome . Yet while China has gone from strength to strength over the past 20 or so years , the other three countries have fallen away , as have most of the BRIC funds . So why were they lumped together in the first place and what can investors learn from the experience ?
Still standing The first point to note is that despite their more recent divergence in fortunes , investing in any of the BRICs upon the publication of O ’ Neill ’ s paper
TRUSTNET