LONDON - Ten years ago, Jim O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, coined the term "BRIC". Now he is questioning whether Brazil, Russia, India and China can still be defined as emerging markets.

"I don't think of the BRIC as emerging markets. It is an insult and inopportune. And in any case, they are different markets," O'Neill told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

He said: "The BRIC economies are increasingly the major story for the world economy, they have lifted the world economy's growth trend from 3.7 percent to 4.5 percent in my view."