The collapse in these markets, which had risen dramatically since they were first grouped together as the Brics in 2001 by Goldman Sachs, has raised serious questions about the worth of combining them for an investment portfolio.

With commodity prices falling and the world economy contracting sharply, some analysts suggest the changing landscape makes it less useful to put the four economies into one bucket.

Arnab Das, head of emerging markets research and strategy at Dresdner Kleinwort, says: “I always thought the Bric concept, though a great marketing term of enormous franchise value, a bit artificial – and for obvious reasons: the four countries are so different, and really share in common only their continental geographic scale and large economic size.”