In the remaining years of this second decade of the century, emerging countries have the real possibility of producing almost 60% of the Global Domestic Product (in terms of Purchase Power Parity).
The greatest growth in its participation has occurred in the last decade, when its growth rate doubled that of the previous twenty years. Almost 70% of global growth between 2010 and 2016 came from emerging economies.
There, in recent years, a new generation of multinational companies have been taking over the global economy. It not only come from China and India, the most dynamic economies of recent decades, but also from other less obvious corners of the planet such as Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt or Turkey.
Unlike previous waves of multinational companies (which enjoyed protection in their domestic market to be able to export at low prices) these new multinationals had to earn money at prices never seen in the advanced industrial economies, revolutionizing the corporate strategies known until today.
Technological changes, the creation of employment, the new role of emerging economies and new business models promise a future of changes that will define the society of the future.
In this context, the most relevant political, economic and social change that the world has experienced since the 19th century is the emergence of a new global middle class.
It is possible that, in the last 10 years, the global middle class has expanded enough that, for the first time in the history of mankind, more people live in that social sector than in poverty today.
Such an event implies, without a doubt, a revolution in the production of energy and food and a strong competition for water resources. The geopolitical balance to come will probably be very different from what we have known so far.
It will be a more uncertain and unpredictable future where the fixed and permanent truths will be scarce. It will require a new way of exercising power and a new relationship of citizens with politics and the state.
More than a time of change, we are really going through a change of era.
