CNN-News18 BRICS Dialogues: BRICS Has Become Bigger Than I Imagined, Says Economist Who Coined The Acronym

Twenty-five years after coining the term BRIC to describe Brazil, Russia, India and China as emerging economic powers, economist Lord Jim O’Neill says he never imagined the idea would evolve into the much larger geopolitical grouping that BRICS has become.

Speaking to CNN-News18 journalist Poonam Burde as part of CNN-News18 BRICS Dialogues on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit 2026 in New Delhi, O’Neill said the grouping had acquired a “whole bigger functionality” than he had originally envisaged.

What began in 2001 as an economic concept centred on the growing weight of four emerging economies has since expanded to include South Africa and a much wider grouping. For O’Neill, that transformation has given the BRICS idea a role that goes well beyond

the investment and economic argument behind the original acronym.

“I didn’t,” O’Neill said when asked whether he had ever imagined BRIC would develop into the geopolitical force that BRICS represents today.

West Still Struggling To Understand Rise Of Emerging Economies

O’Neill believes part of the explanation lies in how the West views the changing global economy.

He said Western countries continue to find it difficult to accept that some emerging economies could become economically more important than them, arguing that the problem is partly psychological and rooted in history.

“History guides us all,” O’Neill said, pointing to the influence of generations and the way historical experiences shape perceptions.

The economist argued that the growing economic weight of countries such as India and China should naturally translate into a greater voice in the international system.

According to O’Neill, this is not simply a question of economic competition. Global challenges such as infectious diseases, climate change and global economic imbalances cannot be addressed effectively without cooperation between the major emerging economies and the West.

That belief prompted O’Neill and a colleague to establish BRICS Plus Thinking, a policy platform intended to encourage greater cooperation between BRICS countries and Western nations on such issues.

Trump Policies Could Push Countries Closer To BRICS

O’Neill also sees a more immediate factor potentially strengthening the case for BRICS: US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade and economic policies.

Asked whether tariffs, sanctions and uncertainty under Trump could inadvertently push India, China and other countries towards building stronger economic alternatives to the United States, O’Neill said yes.

If Washington continues pursuing what he described as unpredictable policies and provocations against different countries, he said, it is only logical for those countries to look for ways to reduce their dependence on the US.

“They will try to find ways of not being so reliant on the US and seek stronger economic relations with other places,” O’Neill said, describing that as a “perfectly logical response”.

The argument goes to the heart of BRICS’ evolving role. While the grouping was not conceived as an anti-US or anti-Western alliance, growing trade tensions and the use of tariffs and sanctions have created incentives for countries to diversify their economic relationships.

For O’Neill, that could make the grouping more relevant than he originally anticipated.

India, China Have Outperformed 25-Year Forecasts

O’Neill’s assessment of BRICS also comes with a striking economic verdict on its two biggest emerging-market powers India and China.

Looking back at the forecasts made around the time he coined the BRIC acronym, O’Neill said he was surprised by how strongly both countries had performed relative to those projections.

He referred to an analysis by economist Gavin Davies, a former Goldman Sachs colleague, which examines how major parts of the global economy have performed over the past 25 years compared with the forecasts made at the time.

O’Neill said he had a general sense that India and China had done well, but was “shocked” when he saw the specific numbers and the scale of their outperformance.

According to O’Neill, India and China are the only two major nations or economies in the analysis to have actually outperformed the growth expectations laid out 25 years ago.

The US, he added, also performed strongly but slightly underperformed the projections made at the time — making the performance of India and China particularly notable.