Assessing sustainability of basic: a comprehensive wealth perspective

We look at the trend of “comprehensive wealth” growth rates and the comprehensive investment in Brazil, South Africa, India, and China (BASIC) for the period 1990 to 2008. Comprehensive wealth growth rates, unlike the conventional growth rate, are based on net investments in physical capital and human capital, net disinvestments in different natural assets, damages due to environmental externalities, and the effects of exogenous population growth and technological change. The dominance of net physical investment coupled with declining population growth rate has helped BASIC countries to exhibit positive per capita comprehensive wealth growth rates. Moreover, comprehensive investment relative to real GDP was rising in India, South Africa, and China since 2000 while the same trend was clear only after 2005 in Brazil. While the difference between conventional and comprehensive investment ratios is widening in South Africa, it is narrowing in India.