For the 2010-2012 period, Russia has the highest GDP per capita among the BRICs. Turkey’s GDP per capita is higher than the rest of the group.

Brazil, Russia, India and China’s economies are generally assessed under a separate category. The view is that these four countries will become major economic powers in the medium-long term. These are referred to with the acronym BRIC. I want to compare the BRICs with Turkey as long as the economic agenda allows. I will include Korea in the comparison in order to provide a clearer picture of key challenges facing Turkey. These challenges are well known actually. But I believe it will be useful to address them with a comparative perspective.

First I will address the issue in the open: The table below shows the GDP per capita of the studied countries in proportion to the average GDP per capita of the G7 countries. As the figures give GDP at purchasing power parity they are comparable. The figures represent the average GDP per capita over the time frame. At the lower group of rows, the table gives average growth rates over the same time frame.

We see that Korea has a distinct position. For the 2010-2012 period, Russia has the highest GDP per capita among the BRICs. Turkey’s GDP per capita is higher than the group but Russia.

Concerning average GDP per capita growth for the 1980-2012 period, we see that China has been growing rapidly (12.3 percent) and is followed by India (7.4 percent). Excluding the recent period, Brazil has the weakest performance (3.8 percent) and so far has been unable to achieve its GDP per capita (in proportion to G7) the 1980s. Right above Brazil are Russia (4.4 percent) and Turkey (5.6 percent). On the other hand, figures show that Brazil and Turkey have started a leap in the recent period. Meanwhile, Korea has not only a high GDP per capita but also a high GDP growth rate (8.9 percent).

The growth rates below are based on GDP and thus do not represent the effect of population dynamics. China had rapid growth throughout the examined timeframe. Alike, India had a strong growth performance particularly after 2000. These two are followed by Korea though the performance of the country weakens starting in 2000.

These three countries basically outperform the rest, with Brazil being the weakest link.

I will continue.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 10.01.2013