The world in 2050

Beyond the BRICs: A broader look at emerging market growth prospects

In March 2006 we published a report highlighting the rapid growth and increasing global significance of what we called the ‘E7’ emerging economies: the BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, plus Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey. Here we update our economic growth projections to take into account the latest available data.

We also extend the analysis to include 13 other emerging economies. Added to the 17 largest economies considered in our earlier report, this new ‘PwC 30’ grouping of countries accounts for around 85% of world economic output.

Some of the highlighted projections of this latest analysis:

  • By 2050, the E7 emerging economies will be around 50% larger than the current G7 (US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada)
  • The fastest mover could be Vietnam, with a potential growth rate of almost 10% per annum in real dollar terms that could push it up to around 70% of the size of the UK economy by 2050.
  • China is expected to overtake the US as the largest economy in around 2025, and India has the potential to nearly catch up with the US by 2050

In the words of the report's joint authors John Hawksworth and Gordon Cookson: "The general message is that investors with long-time horizons should look beyond the BRICs — there are many other alternatives worth considering depending on the nature of the investment and the risk tolerance of the investor."


Download: The World in 2050 (PDF 225 KB)		 Beyond the BRICs: A broader look at emerging market growth prospects