{
  "id": 15562024,
  "title": "The inventor of BRICS has a message for ‘lazy, colonial’ Europe—India and China are still not taken seriously enough on the world stage",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/the-inventor-of-brics-has-a-message-for-lazy-colonial-europe-india",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-19T05:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/10/19/jim-oneill-economics-paper-no-66-brics-lazy-colonial-europe-india-china/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 2001, Jim O’Neill, a prominent Goldman Sachs economist, published the influential report \"Global Economics Paper No: 66\" which highlighted the potential of emerging economies. This paper identified Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) as the four countries that would significantly influence the global economy. Now, 25 years later, O’Neill remarks that the BRICS group has become increasingly reliant on China and India, both of which have surpassed the growth projections made in the original report. India’s per capita growth since 2000 has been a remarkable 246%, while China’s is an impressive 554%. Despite China’s continued outpacing of the West, O’Neill believes that India’s demographic profile gives it the potential to grow at a rate of 7-8% over the next 15-20 years, possibly even reaching 10% with improved reforms. In 2001, O’Neill hoped to spark a conversation that was equally about global cooperation as economic trends. However, following the financial crisis, the G20 – which included China and India – emerged as a solution. Despite this, Western countries have been reluctant to share their privileges, and the European Union, in particular, has shown a lack of ambition and a tendency towards colonial attitudes. O’Neill also criticizes the EU for its protectionist policies and hypocrisy, especially when it comes to trade disputes with the U.S. and China. He notes that the U.S. currently criticizes China’s dominance in the global economy, despite the fact that it is also facing significant economic challenges from China. Furthermore, O’Neill explains that the Chinese Communist Party’s shift towards nationalism has played a role in limiting China’s openness to foreign influence. As global volatility and the rapid growth of China and India are expected to continue, O’Neill believes that the West must eventually respond to this shift in global power dynamics.",
  "summary": "Jim O’Neill’s Goldman Sachs Economics Paper No. 66 reshaped how business leaders looked at the world, but it may now be time for a significant upgrade",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}