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The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations should surpass current world leaders in the next few decades if they do not let politics prevail over economic issues. Experts caution that despite the vigorous growth, BRIC countries are vulnerable to losing direct foreign investment due to excessive government control and lack of clear rules for the private sector. What will the world look like in 50 years? In the upcoming half-century, the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) may become dominant forces in the global landscape. BRIC countries have grown so rapidly within the last couple of years that their share in the world trade and the number of foreign direct investments have doubled since 2001. According to projections by Goldman Sachs, in less than 40 years, the combined GDP of the BRIC economies will surpass that of the G6 economies. This notable performance can be attributed to an expansion in these countries' domestic demand due in part to their easy monetary policies, leading to increased trade among the countries in the region including Japan--in other words, an autonomous growth mechanism is functioning. Other factor that has supported this trend is inflation that has remained low despite the global economic recovery. Analysts read out two aspects behind the possibility of such a phenomenon. First, economic globalisation has brought about a sharp increase in the supply of low-priced, quality products from emerging countries including the BRICs and Asian nations, making it harder for more advanced industrial countries to maintain control of the prices of competing products. And second, there has been a rise in productivity, as shown by the decline in the unit labour cost in both the United States and Japan. Some forecasts showed that in purchasing power parity terms China alone could have a bigger gross domestic product than the world's biggest economy, the United States, by 2050, and India could catch up by then, too. In order to do so, both countries have to make a step forward from being the developed world's manufacturing backyard and back office and produce technological innovations for the global economy. Within the last years the BRIC countries have contributed substantially to the worldwide economic growth. However, the demand for raw materials did not only promote growth in the OPEC countries, but also industrial countries have profited from it as well. Therefore, economists believe that China could become the greatest national economy in 2040, followed by the USA, India, Japan, and Russia. But there are a number of risk factors posing a threat to the current steady economic recovery in BRIC countries: bureaucracy, political issues, widespread corruption, regulatory uncertainty, "economic nationalism," when governments seize or threaten to seize the assets of foreign firms in an effort to squeeze more cash out of them for the national economy, weak law and order situation, developments in the currency market. Although China is still enjoying robust economic growth, some potential bottlenecks have started to emerge, in the shape of electricity and water shortages, as well as traffic congestion. The country's economic expansion could therefore slow to some extent, although the rate of growth is liable to remain relatively high. Another suspicion as economists from the world over has raised is that the four countries were unlikely to form a bloc despite active bilateral contacts, such as between India and Brazil, and occasional unity on certain common issues, such as opposition to European Union trade tariffs. India's reluctance to join Russia and China in a political pact designed to offset US influence is one of the problems. Also, the nature of Russian-Chinese relations is very different from those between Brazil and India. So, the chance of a coalition between the four is difficult to follow.
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