For human geographers, MINT is the new acronym on the block. Jim O’Neill, who coined the BRIC catch-phrase back in 2002, has re-focused his attention — and ours — on Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. Each has a large, youthful population capable of delivering a demographic dividend (see Further reading). At a glance, Figure 1 shows three of the four MINT states out-performing the BRIC economies in 2013, with the exception of China. They certainly seem to stand out from the crowd, in line with what O’Neill, who used to be a chief economist with Goldman Sachs, is saying.
It is interesting to note, however, that Nigeria was not among O’Neill’s first choice of ‘next generation’ growth economies. He originally outlined a ‘MIST’ group, including South Korea, as his latest focus for a new BBC documentary. But the producers wanted a fast-growing African country to be included, in order to ensure their audience was given a truly global perspective on development. Thus, the MINT moniker was born.
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