BRIC reasonably similar to that of Brazil and Russia, and slightly above that of India. South Africa is a "gateway" to Southern Africa and Africa in general as the most developed African country. China is South Africa's largest trading partner, and India wants to increase commercial ties with Africa. South Africa is also Africa's largest economy, but as number 31 in global GDP economies it is far behind its new partners. Jim O'Neill expressed surprise when South Africa joined BRIC since South Africa's economy is a quarter of the size of Russia's (the least economically powerful BRIC nation). He believed that
BRIC closed down its BRIC fund after lost 88 percent of its asset value since 2010 and put the fund in emerging markets countries. Historically, Jim O'Neill who coined the term of BRIC was the former chief economist of Goldman Sachs. The head of emerging markets for Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Ruchir Sharma has released a book in 2012: "Breakout Nations" which mentioned that it is hard to sustain rapid growth for more than a decade. Based on a March 2011 "Forbes" report, the BRIC countries counted 301 billionaires among their combined populations, exceeding the number of billionaires in Europe, which