An Empirical Analysis of Economic Interdependence of BRICS+ Countries in the Context of Regional Orientation of Foreign Trade

The growing economic influence of Global South countries and the establishment of BRICS+ as a major economic and political actor have necessitated a revision of classical approaches to assessing interdependence among countries within integration associations. The research aims to identify patterns of trade and economic interaction among BRICS+ countries based on an analysis of the direction and structural similarity of their export and import baskets. The relevance of the problem under study is determined by the uniqueness of the bloc, which lacks supranational institutions and unites economies with different levels of economic development and economic specialization. The study employs comparative analysis methods using several indicators: the share of foreign trade in gross domestic products, the country’s regional orientation index, and the index of similarity between the export and import structures of two countries. The empirical base consists of data on ten BRICS+ countries for 2001, 2010, and 2023 at the level of aggregated commodity groups. The findings demonstrate the formation of stable clusters of countries within the bloc with maximum and minimum structural similarities, the persistence of fragmented and asymmetric mutual trade and economic ties, as well as the absence of a unified trajectory for trade and economic integration within BRICS+.