There may be a new ‘Fragile Five’—and they’re all among the most developed economies in the world

During an economic milestone event in 2013 called the “taper tantrum,” a Morgan Stanley analyst coined the term “Fragile Five.” Turkey, Brazil, India, South Africa and Indonesia were counted among them because they faced declining currencies, soaring bond yields, high inflation and large external debt burdens, which were insufficiently covered by their local reserves. This fragility was manifest when extremely low global interest rates were “tapered” back towards normalcy.