Brazil overtakes UK’s GDP

You can measure much by a country’s GDP and the latest Centre for Economics and Business Research's (Cebr) World Economic League Table reveals some interesting rises and falls amongst the world’s richest countries.

The Cebr World Economic League Table (WELT) is an annual calculation by Cebr which is produced as part of the The Global Prospects Report. The base data for 2010 is taken from the IMF and GDP is forecast for the future years using Cebr’s global prospects model to forecast growth, inflation and exchange rates.

Cebr has confirmed Brazil’s GDP overtook the UK’s in 2011 to become the world’s sixth largest economy. Elsewhere in the BRIC camp, Russia has climbed the league table moving from being the 11th largest economy in 2010 to now claim a realistic prediction that it will be the world's fourth largest economy by 2020, estimates Cebr.

However, Asian countries are set to become the biggest movers up the league table. India has moved up from being the 9th largest economy in 2010 to be on track to become the world’s 5th largest by 2020. Thailand moves seven notches higher up from 32nd position  to 25th; whilst Taiwan moves from 24th to 18th position and Korea from 15th to 12th.

Cebr’s Chief Executive Douglas McWilliams says, “Brazil has beaten the European countries at soccer for a very long time. But beating them at economics is a new phenomenon. Our World Economic League Table shows how the world's economic map is changing, with Asian countries and commodity producing economies climbing up the league while we in Europe fall back.”

It will be no surprise to learn given the recent economic conditions  that  European countries have fallen back. Germany falls from the 4th largest economy in 2010 to a predicted 7th in 2020; the UK from 6th to 8th and France from 5th to 9th. The United States, China and Japan are predicted to retain their current positions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd in 2020, according to Cebr.

www.cebr.com