MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil overtakes the UK and becomes the world’s sixth largest economy

Vital commodities, food and energy rapidly moving up the scale

Brazil has overtaken the UK as the world's sixth largest economy according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, CEBR. The latest World Economic League Table also showed Asian countries moving up and European countries falling back.

The CEBR also predicted that the UK economy would overtake France by 2016. It also said the Euro zone economy would shrink 0.6% in 2012 “if the Euro problem is solved” or 2% if it is not.

CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams told BBC Radio 4's Today program that Brazil overtaking the UK was part of a growing trend. ”I think it's part of the big economic change, where not only are we seeing a shift from the west to the east, but we're also seeing that countries that produce vital commodities - food and energy and things like that - are doing very well and they're gradually climbing up the economic league table,” he said.

According to the CEBR and the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Export, Brazil’s GDP estimate for 2011 is 2.52 trillion dollars. Exports in 2010 totalled 201.9 billion and imports 181.6 billion. Main exports: manufactured goods, iron ore, coffee, oranges and other agricultural produce and the main trading partners, China, US and Argentina.
 

A report based on International Monetary Fund data published earlier this year also said the Brazilian economy would overtake the UK in 2011. Brazil has a population of about 200 million, more than three times the population of the UK.

 Brazil's economy grew by 7.5% last year, but the government has cut its growth forecast for 2011 to below 3.5% after the economy ground to a halt in the third quarter, with analysts blaming the country's high interest rates and the worsening situation in the Euro zone.

 And although Brazil currently sells more to China than it imports, Brazilian manufacturers have complained that their industries are being affected by cheap mass-produced goods from the Asian giant.
 The CEBR also said that Russia moved up one spot in its league table to ninth in 2011, and predicted that it would rise to fourth spot by 2020. It predicted that India, the world's 10th biggest economy in 2011, would become the fifth largest by 2020.
 

And it said European countries would drop down the table, with Germany falling from fourth in 2011 to seventh in 2020, the UK from seventh to eighth, and France from fifth to ninth.
 

The World Economic League Table shows the US ranked 1 in 2011, followed by China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, UK, Italy, Russia and India. However for 2020 the forecast is as follows: US leads followed by China, Japan, Russia, India, Brazil, Germany, UK, France and Italy. (BBC)