Progress and Pitfalls: Are the BRIC Countries’ Social Agendas Constraining Their Economic Growth?
Jacira Werle Rodrigues

Abstract
This article elaborates a comparative analysis of current economic and social performance, and stage of development of the largest emerging markets, the BRIC countries. It aims to evaluate examine each country’s performance, highlights commonalities and differences, and raises questions about the BRIC nations’ ability to sustain their recent economic achievements. Multiple social and economic indicators, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), GDP per capita, Human Development Index (HDI), poverty rates, income inequality and Gini coefficient, between the period 2000-2015 have been analyzed. Findings suggest significant disparity between social and economic outcomes. Overall, wealth generation has been progressively improving; however, recent economic contraction signalizes a volatile context which, coupled with modest results in the social agenda, could be broadly detrimental to these countries sustainable development trajectory. It could be argued that these discrepant outcomes could potentially have been maximized by each country’s governmental strategic decisions to address their internal challenges.

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