Western execs hit BRICS wall on emerging currencies

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Western executives believe the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will reshape the global business landscape, but they struggle to identify their currencies, a study released on Thursday said.

The study of 800 senior executives in the U.S., UK, France and Germany found 88 percent could not name the currency of Brazil, 55 percent did not know the name of India's currency and 65 percent did not know what unit was used in South Africa.

While the real (BRBY), the rupee INR=IN and the rand ZAR=D3 scored low on the recognition scale, 61 percent said it was crucial their business was able to work with the so-called BRICS economies, the survey conducted by Datamonitor for Britain's BT Group (BT.L) found.

The study covered companies with turnover from $10 million to more than $1 billion.

India was perceived as the most "comfortable" of the five economies in which to do business, followed by China, while Russia was seen as the least comfortable.

More than seven out of 10 Western directors thought organisations in the developed world were technologically better equipped to work internationally than those in the five emerging economies.

But four out of five also thought the necessary information and communication technology was readily available for them to work effectively with companies in the emerging economies.