Once upon a time they used to be called “emerging markets”. But that was before Goldman Sachs packaged four of the largest – Brazil, Russia, India and China – in a presentation box and labelled it with the snappy acronym “Bric”.

As a shorthand the category has taken off further than almost anyone might have guessed. The four economies collectively had a great decade and even a pretty good financial crisis, so much so that the Bric governments have started having their own summits.

Rapid growth in developing countries, as long as the environmental and social stresses can be managed, can be good for all. It is good for their citizens, whose living standards are transformed, and good for the rich nations, who gain cheap imports and bigger export markets. It should also be good for the image of the market economy to show that the ladder to prosperity has not, contrary to the views of some, been kicked away.