BRICS Mutual Trade Increased By 70% Since 2009

Trade between BRICS countries has increased 70% over the past 6 year, according to South African President Jacob Zuma, RT reports.

The economies of the five BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) account for almost 30% of global GDP.

BRICS presents an aggregate GDP exceeding $32 trillion. This marks a 60% growth since the formation of the grouping,

the South African President told reporters yesterday in Cape Town.

BRICS countries produce:

• 33% of the world’s industrial products
• 50% of all agricultural goods.

BRICS also attracted almost 21% of total global direct investment in 2014, which is an increase of 3.5% over 5 years.

The share of BRICS capital investment on the global markets has also increased significantly from 9.7% to 14% since 2009,

Jacob Zuma said.

The group is ready to expand its economic cooperation with partners in key areas such as:

• food production,
• power generation,
• the petro-chemical industry,
• mining,
• tourism,
• renewable and nuclear energy,
• trade,
• transportation,
• communications and training,

according to the South African president.

On July 30, the agreement on the BRICS $100 billion currency reserve pool came into force. The fund was set up by the developing nations group to protect their national currencies from volatility in global markets.

The arrangement is important not only because it provides the possibility to quickly obtain additional liquidity, but its very existence has a positive, stabilizing effect on the market. Similar agreements created by other countries (for example, the European Stability Mechanism) continue to be in force and fulfill their functions,

Russia’s BRICS group representative told TASS.

The BRICS countries contributions to the liquidity fund look as follows:

•   $41 billion – China
•   $18 billion – Brazil
•   $18 billion – India
•   $18 billion – Russia
•     $5 billion – South Africa
• – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
• $100 billion – TOTAL