World's Energy

MOSCOW, June 15, 2009 (RIA Novosti) - The BRIC format of the world's four leading emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - should be expanded to include Indonesia, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley has drawn up a report on the four countries ahead of the first BRIC summit, opening on Monday in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg. The rates of economic growth in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, are expected to accelerate to 7% from 2011, which corresponds to the BRIC format criteria, Chetan Ahya, a Singapore-based economist at Morgan Stanley, said in an interview with Bloomberg. According to the analyst, political stability and improved public finance management, and "a natural advantage from demography and commodity resources" are "likely to unleash Indonesia's growth potential." The $433 billion economy, the largest in Southeast Asia, may grow 60% in the next five years to $800 billion "due to a stable administration, lower capital costs and a government plan to spend as much as $34 billion to build roads, ports and power plants by 2017," the report said. Indonesia showed 4% growth in the first quarter of 2009, the highest in Southeast Asia, compared with a slump of over 6% registered in neighboring Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.