newly industrialized countries - Brief economic analysis, Historical Context, The Present Day

The formerly less developed countries which have built up considerable industrial production and exports over recent decades. This group includes the four ‘Asian Tigers’, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, and also countries such as China, India, Malaysia, and Thailand in Asia, and Brazil and Mexico in Latin America. Newly industrialized countries account for an increasing proportion of world trade, including intra-industry trade and trade in high-tech products, and provide formidable competition for the longer established OECD industrial countries.

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The category of Newly industrialized countries (NICs) is a social/economic classification status applied to several countries around the world by political scientists and economists.

NICs are countries whose economies have not yet reached first world status but have, in a macroeconomic sense, outpaced their third world counterparts.

NICs usually share some other common features, including:

Increased social freedoms and civil rights.

Brief economic analysis

NIC's usually benefit from low labor costs, which translates into lower input prices for suppliers.

Historical Context

The term began to be used in the 1970s when the so-called "East Asian Tigers" of Hong Kong (SAR of the People's Republic of China), South Korea, Singapore and the Republic of China (Taiwan) rose to global prominence with rapid industrial growth since the 1960s, most now having evolved beyond this status (see developed countries).

The Present Day

Some current examples include Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, the Philippines, Turkey, the GCC states, Thailand and Malaysia. China and India are special cases: the immense population of these two nations (over two billion combined as of November 2006) means that per capita income will remain low even if either economy surpasses that of the United States of America.

The group of China, Mexico, India, Brazil and South Africa meet annually with the G8 to discuss financial topics.