THE GROUP OF BRICS COUNTRIES: IS IT STILL RELEVANT FOR THE WORLD ECONOMY ?

The BRICS alliance has been formally set up in order to fulfill both economic and geostrategic functions. Even if the latter are more significant than the former, the actual BRICS cooperation framework adds value to the theoretical concept of partnerships for economic development. The group includes four of the largest emerging economies worldwide therefore an analysis of the BRICS from the perspective of quantitative and qualitative indicators is useful at a time when traditional sources of economic growth are not taken for granted any more. The main objective of the present paper is to capture BRICS' shares in world gross product, trade and investment flows and also the strengths and weaknesses of the five emerging economies from the standpoint of specific indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]