The Growth Map

I’m at an industry conference this week. Dull. But I was invited along to a fascinating event where Jim O’Neill, the Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, made a presentation. O’Neill is in the words of Business Week “Goldman Sachs’ rock star”. It was he who first predicted the slide of the developed world and the rise of emerging markets. He was the clever fellow who first coined the term ‘BRICS’ – Brazil, Russia, India, China. Here are some amazing snippets from his presentation:

Greece – Why is everyone so concerned about Greece. In GDP terms, China creates a new Greece every 11 weeks.

Italy – Why worry about Italy either. In GDP terms, the BRICs create a new Italy every 12 months.

Eurozone – The only Eurozone countries which fulfil the original EMU criteria are Finland and Slovakia. Outside the Eurozone, the only other countries which also fulfil the original EMU criteria are Sweden and Australia.

China – It is very rapidly moving from the cheap producer of Western goods to the consumer of all these goods too.

Germany – Exports more to the BRICs than to France. In the next year, China will become its number 1 export market.

You can no doubt read more of his brilliance in his new book, The Growth Map, of which he kindly gave me a signed copy.