Tuesday 21 January 2014

What Do BRIC and MINT Mean in Financial Trading?

Have you ever heard the terms BRIC or more recently MINT countries? If you’re looking to get into the financial trading game, you just might need to know what they are and how they work. Why are they important?

BRIC Countries

So let’s start with the BRIC countries, since they’re the ones that have seen the most interest from those in the financial trading game over the past decade. The BRIC countries first came to the attention of the financial trading community in 2001; the term was coined by celebrated economist Jim O’Neill

BRIC is in fact an acronym for four countries. These countries are Brazil, Russia, India and of course China. So why did O’Neill decide to bring so much attention to these emerging economies back in 2011.

Because they were emerging. Back in 2001 these countries were all enjoying favourable (and similar) economic climates. At the time it indicated a global shift in economic power due to population growth, eligibility to work, economic strength and availability to natural resources.

These are the factors that provided them with room for economic growth. They had more materials and a growing population to turn these materials into products that westerners would want to buy in their droves.

They basically had more potential than the western G7 countries, which were seen as the most economically wealthy in the world, because they had more room to grow. The G7 countries had already been growing and had less potential room for more growth.

This is why they were and somewhat continue to be important to know about in financial trading. The next decade saw the BRIC countries (especially Chia) grow leaps and bounds economically. Today they occupy a significant place on the global economic stage and you have to watch what happens with these countries to truly capitalise in financial trading opportunities.

The economic power of these nations is now somewhat waning. They still have power, but a decade of unprecedented growth has now been confronted by the reality of growing your economy. It has consequences. China last year experienced its slowest rate of growth in 14 years and Russia and India have recently been plagued with financial issues.

MINT Countries

So now we turn our attention to the MINT countries. Again an acronym, the four countries in question are: Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. These are the new emerging economic powers to watch as we enter the second half of the decade.

There are two reasons O’Neill has turned his attention to the MINT countries. Firstly, they all have a positive ratio of people eligible to work against people not working over the next two decades. More workers mean more products to export, fostering more opportunities meaning greater scope for growth.

However these countries are also often seen as strong contenders for economic growth because of their geographical location. Take Mexico. It has capitalized on emerging US interest in its capabilities but is also in a great position to take advantage of rising Latin American economic activity.


This is why the Academy of Financial Trading suggests that you be watching both the BRC and MINT countries right now. They have more potential than G7 nations and are likely to keep on expanding. There’s money to be made in these countries.


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