Growth - ten emerging countries hot on heels of BRICS. - In a new study, the global leader in credit insurance, COFACE, has identified several emerging countries now giving the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) a run for their money. The BRICS countries are now seeing their growth start to lose steam and, for 2014, COFACE is predicting average growth of 3.2 points below their average growth over the previous decade. According to the credit insurance group, ten emerging countries are now starting to rival the BRICS countries, with their promising production prospects and financing capacity which is sufficient to support their expansion. However, these countries are not yet their equals in terms of the business environment, where several shortcomings could hamper growth. This leads COFACE to distinguish between two groups: 1) Columbia, Indonesia, Peru, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, which have a suitable business environment, similar to that of the BRICS countries today; 2) Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Bangladesh and Ethiopia, which are experiencing difficult to extremely tough business environments, which could well prevent them from making the most of their full potential. However, the study reveals a few weaknesses compared to the rise of the BRICS in the 2000s: 1) the emerging countries identified currently represent just 11% of the global population, whereas the BRICS represented 43% of that population in 2001; 2) the level of GDP equates to just 70% of that of the BRICS in 2001; 3) on average, the BRICS recorded a current account surplus, whereas the “new emerging countries” are experiencing a deficit of around 6% of GDP. However, despite a less propitious background, these emerging countries have a few advantages over the situation of the BRICS in 2001: their inflation rates are some 2.8 points below that of the BRICS at the time, and the level of public debt is in the region of 40% of GDP, compared to 54% for the BRICS. COFACE also welcomes the return to good health of the United States and the United Kingdom, which both have solid assets. According to its forecasts, American growth is likely to be +2.7% in 2014 and that of the United Kingdom +2.1%. (IL)