How the BRICs help the poorest

Posted By David Bosco Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - 7:44 AM Share

World Bank chief economist Justin Yifu Lin notes that the poorest countries have weathered the economic turmoil of the past several years remarkably well. And part of the credit, he and other Bank economists argue, goes to the BRICs:

One of the reasons appears to be that these low income countries have benefitted from strong spillovers from emerging market and other developing economies, particularly BRIC countries. Some would argue that [low income countries] have been less affected by the global financial crisis because they are less integrated with the world economy. However, it should be noted that this lower degree of integration did not prevent low income countries from suffering sharp declines in economic activity in the past. Of course, improvements in macroeconomic management in recent years and strong international support helped mitigate the impact of the crisis, but it seems there is little doubt that low income countries' ever-increasing linkages with BRICs provided significant support to their growth during the crisis.