When Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill named the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China "BRICs" in 2001, he didn't realize he was creating a major new geopolitical term, one that would even be turned into a formal alliance by the countries themselves. (They capitalized the "S" when South Africa joined in 2010.) He also probably didn't realize he was creating a new cottage industry of acronyms. Here's a guide to today's post-BRIC alphabet soup of global economics.
BASIC
Stands for: Brazil, South Africa, India, China
Created by: The countries themselves
Why: The BASIC group emerged at the 2009 Copenhagen climate-change conference to present a counterproposal putting more obligations on rich countries to cut carbon emissions. Cooperation continued into subsequent rounds of climate talks in Mexico and South Africa.
MIKT
Stands for: Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey
Created by: Jim O'Neill
Why: O'Neill didn't rest on his laurels following the hugely successful BRICs branding. In early 2011, he unveiled MIKT, arguing that the term "emerging markets" to describe these countries was simply no longer useful. It hasn't stuck quite as well.
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