Debate is raging among economists from major banks about the BRIC acronym, used to describe the emerging behemoth economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, with some calling for the scrapping of the term.

Spanish bank BBVA is championing a new term altogether: Eagles. The term, which stands for 'emerging and growth-leading economies' includes the BRIC countries but also adds South Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt and Taiwan to the group.

BBVA’s report stated: “While path-breaking when coined, the concept of the BRIC countries seems outdated today given the increase in growth differential among the four countries involved.”

The bank pointed out that the Eagles countries are most relevant in terms of newly generated business and are expected to be responsible for 50% of all global growth in the next 10 years, compared to only 14% for the G7.

There has also been debate on the make up of the BRIC countries, with some calling for Russia to be replaced by Indonesia, and others saying South Africa should reconfigure the term to BRICS.

BBVA has also created a watch list for countries that could potentially join the Eagles, some of which are already included in Goldman Sachs’ Next 11, HSBC’s Civets and Standard Chartered’s 7% club. These countries are Argentina, Bangladesh, Colombia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam.