MINTs, BRICs, PIGS和HIDeCs分別指什麼？

If you invested your money in the BRICs early, took your profits and got out of the PIGS in time you may now be wondering whether to put your money into MINTs or keep it in the HIDeCs.  We’re not about to offer you investment advice, but we do get asked what all of these mean so here goes…

如果你早先在金磚國家投資過，帶着你的盈利及時離開歐豬四國。也許你在想是否要把你的錢投入薄荷四國或把它留在高負債發達國家。我們不打算給你提供投資建議，但的確被問起這些都代表着什麼，所以在這裏進行解釋……

BRIC(S): Brazil, Russia, India and China (South Africa).  Countries which were tipped for high growth 10 years ago.

金磚四國：巴西、俄羅斯、印度和中國（南非），在過十年前獲得了顛覆性的高增長。

PIGS (or PIIGS): Portugal, Italy (Ireland), Greece and Spain.  A group of countries at the edges of  the Euro zone.

歐豬四國：葡萄牙、意大利（愛爾蘭）、希臘和西班牙，那些在歐元區邊緣的國家。

MINTs: Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.  The economies tipped to provide great growth over the next 10 years.“MINTs are fresh, unlike BRICs”.

薄荷四國：墨西哥、印度尼西亞、尼日利亞和土耳其，在未來十年經濟將有巨大增長。比起金磚四國，薄荷四國更有活力。

HIDeCs: Highly Indebted Developed Countries.  Odds are you live in one of these. Not to be confused with…

高負債發達國家：很可能你就身處其中之一，不要爲之困惑。

HIPCs: Highly Indebted Poor Countries.  A group of countries eligible for special assistance.

負債沉重的窮國：那些有資格獲得特別援助的國家。

What will the next acronym be and what does this mean for businesses in the UK?  As the UK can be known by any of the three initials BUG (Britain, United Kingdom, Great Britain), we’re more likely to appear in the next acronym than a country less useful for spelling.

下一個首字母縮略詞將是什麼？對英國商業有何意義？正如英國可以表示爲BUG（英國、聯合王國和大不列顛）中的任何一個，我們更可能出現在下一個首字母縮寫詞中而不是一個對拼寫不太有用的國家中。