Countries which were formerly classified as less developed but have recently increased the proportion of industrial production in national income and of industrial exports in trade. The NICs were the most rapidly growing part of the world economy in the last quarter of the 20th century. There is no standard list of NICs: they include the ‘East Asian tigers’ (Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan), and various other countries such as Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand, and their number is growing.