South Africa only officially became a part of this cozy economic group this week. Although its geographic and population sizes are dwarfed by its four counterparts, South Africa has assiduously positioned itself as the gateway to investment on the Africa continent, making it a crucial economic power as investment in Africa, particularly by China, booms.
South Africa’s $287 billion economy doesn’t even break into the world’s top 20 economies and in 2009 it was still experiencing negative economic growth as a result of the global financial crisis. But the BRIC countries know that if they want to tap Africa’s potential, they need to go through South Africa.
South Africa’s economy is still quite divided, a remnant of divides originating in the apartheid era. It has a robust formal market economy that operates alongside an informal economy resembling those in much of the developing world. Unequal distribution of wealth is still widespread.
Source: US State Department
