What a difference a decade makes. Ten years after Moscow’s debt default triggered a global financial crisis, it is now Russia and the other Brics that could help stabilise the global economy, says Alex Patelis, head of international economics at Merrill Lynch.

There are three ways this can happen: First, through the “Bric wall of consumption.” In the Bric countries, consumption is just 45 per cent of their GDP, compared to 71 per cent in the US. And with loose monetary policy, strong wage growth and banking systems that have largely escaped the financial crisis, consumption is unlikely to crater.