International Monetary Fund says the rapid economic growth of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) has helped create the global commodity boom and strengthened its trade ties with low income countries LIC.

According to a policy paper of IMF, the value of LIC-BRIC trade has grown six-fold over the past decade. As bilateral trade has expanded, financial flows from BRICs to LICs — both in the form of foreign direct investment and development financing — have also increased rapidly.

The report said while improved macro-economic management has been critical to this strong economic performance, the more favourable external environment — the emergence of BRIC was an important contributing factor.

The IMF policy paper states, there is potential to further increase LIC-BRIC trade by lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers on both sides, reducing tariff escalation, extending preferential access for LIC exports, and making rules of origin more liberal in the existing preference schemes.