Different definitions

Some countries with a DIY market that is showing strong growth number among what are known as the ‘emerging markets’. Russia, with continuing double-digit industry growth, can certainly be mentioned as the country with the greatest significance for the DIY sector in this respect. Russia is included among the so-called BRIC nations, ie Brazil, Russia, India and China, the emerging markets with the highest level of GDP. The second group to be categorized according to the GDP criterion consists of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey, or the ‘MIKT’ states. There is no generally binding definition of the ‘emerging market’ as a concept. Accordingly there are differences in how and where these countries are listed. Generally speaking a national economy is considered to be an emerging market if it is a country with social or business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. That is why they are also often referred to officially as important industrialized and developing countries. In the World Banks’s classification, the group of upper-middle-income economies are seen as the emerging markets. Here an annual per capita income of US $ 4 086 – US $ 12 615 is taken as the basis. This list currently includes 55 states. Russia, for example, is not on the list because it is already included on the list of high-income economies ($ 12 616 or more). This contrasts with the approach of the International Monetary Fund in its World Economic Outlook, which brings together around 150 states as emerging and developing economies, among them Russia in this case. Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Malaysia, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Turkey and South Africa are seen as the most important nations here. The concept of the emerging market is also used within the context of share trading to set up country indexes. All this indicates that anyone working out strategies for retailing, for instance, that are based on such classifications should be aware that booming emerging markets are not always booming DIY markets. This is made clear by the example of China. While it is true that the biggest of the BRIC economies does promise a gigantic market, opening it up through DIY retail business on western lines is still waiting to happen. Download: