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23 January 2012 | Rebecca Ellinor

Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa are all countries to watch in 2013, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

These nations, which comprise the ‘CIVETS’ – a term coined by the EIU – are all expected to see more growth than two of the BRIC nations, Russia and Brazil.

China and India are still out in front in terms of expectations, followed by emerging market Nigeria. Two other emerging markets ahead of Russia and Brazil are South Korea and Mexico, followed by the G7 countries – US, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, UK and Italy.

Alasdair Ross, global product director at the EIU, said it was expected growth in China this year would be around 8.5 per cent as the country invests in infrastructure and land development among other areas, sees rising wages and therefore increased consumer spending.

In his presentation on the economic outlook for the globe this year, Ross said: “We can see recovery coming but it’s a difficult path to get there.”

He was speaking at The Economist CFO Summit in London yesterday where he referred to the US, China and Eurozone PMIs for manufacturing as one of the indicators of positive signs ahead.

He said the eurozone was moving from “crisis to chronic” with German chancellor Angela Merkel expecting it to struggle for another five years. “Political solutions take time but progress is being made,” he said. 

But for the UK more specifically he said the austerity programme could span a decade, adding “even after that it's still going go be a harder world to live in than 2007 in the developed world”.

Also speaking at the event, Vince Cable, secretary of state for the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, said: “We do need to have a more outward-looking economy with much more emphasis on exports as well as on competing activities. It needs to be focused much more on emerging markets, which we’ve appallingly neglected. The figures on British market share in China and Brazil are just dire. This is two, three decades of neglect.”