BRICS+ 2025 growth and trade promoting initiatives

In 2024, BRICS+ accounted for 42.5% of global GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and 54% of the global population.

In brief

• Increasing share of BRICS+ in global GDP, population and trade may facilitate the evolution of the global economy towards a multilateral system.
• With the share of BRICS+ in global merchandise exports steadily increasing between 2000 and 2024 and that of G7 moderating, they are now at comparable levels.
• New development is expected to play a key role in providing accessible infrastructure financing for BRICS+ members.
• As the market exchange rates converge towards the PPP$ rate, India could be the largest gainer in terms of size of GDP.

Rising importance of BRICS+ group

The 17th BRICS+ summit was held in Rio de Janeiro during 6-7 July 2025. BRICS+ group presently has 10 members and nine partners. The 10 BRICS+ member countries are: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its nine partner countries include Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan¹. The BRICS+ group represents a diverse set of countries, some of which are resource rich in terms of availability of crude and other mineral resources, some have higher per capita incomes and some, relatively large population.

Table 1 shows that in terms of share in global merchandise exports, BRICS+ showed a steady increase from 12.9% in 2000 to 27.3% in 2024, an increase of 14.5% points. This share for G7 declined from 45.2% in 2000 to 28.1% in 2024, becoming comparable to that of BRICS+. A similar pattern prevails in the case of merchandise imports. Thus, the growth in BRICS+ shares of exports and imports closely corresponds with a reduction in the respective shares of the G7 group.

The BRICS+ group is not positioning itself as opposed to any other country bloc or platform, but its growing share in terms of various economic and trade parameters may facilitate the evolution of the global economy towards a multilateral system.

Comparisons of market exchange rate and PPP$

Table 2 shows that, for all BRICS countries, except China, the (market) local currency exchange rate measured in terms of local currency unit per US$ has depreciated over time. The INR depreciated by just a little less than two times. There is a comparable level of depreciation in PPP terms also for India. With respect to the relativity of market exchange rate to PPP$, India had the largest magnitude at 4.1 in 2024 while in the case of Brazil, China and South Africa, it ranged between 2 to 2.5. As the market exchange rates converge towards the PPP$ rate, India could be the largest gainer in the size of its GDP. Such convergence may happen when the market exchange rate is driven by the relative purchasing power parities.

BRICS+ cross-border payment system

The BRICS+ group is promoting greater use of local currencies in global trade transactions and settlement frameworks. In this context, the BRICS+ group has developed a cross-border payments platform based on blockchain technology. A key theme of the 17^th BRICS+ Summit was to assess this platform’s progress. On this platform, trade among BRICS+ participants and even with countries outside of this group is likely be denominated in local currencies. With such a mechanism, the US dollar may not be necessary for pricing or conducting transactions. Thus, BRICS+ group’s cross-border payment initiative is likely to help not only in the creation of the platform to promote increasing use of local currencies in global trade but also promote financial stability, investment and economic growth in the BRICS+ countries. 

BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement

Another institutional arrangement of BRICS+ pertains to the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). This is a framework established by BRICS nations to provide short-term liquidity support through currency swaps during balance of payments crises. It aims to mitigate potential crises and strengthen financial stability among member countries. 

The emphasis of the BRICS+ group policies is to promote intra-BRICS trade undertaken in local currencies using the BRICS payment platform. In addition, they are also promoting relatively condition-free flow of financial resources that can enhance investment including that in infrastructure in the BRICS+ participating countries thereby promoting BRICS+ economic growth. 

Given current trends, we expect that the BRICS+ group would account for more than 50% of global GDP in PPP terms by 2030, both due to growth prospects of the current members and partners and induction of additional countries into the group.