UK named sixth largest economy in the world

PanARMENIAN.Net - Britain has reclaimed its place as the world’s sixth largest economy from Brazil and will be larger than France by 2022, a leading forecaster has predicted, according to The Telegraph.

However, the UK will not be able to avoid a relative decline over the next decade – falling to eighth behind India, Brazil, and Russia but avoiding the dramatic plunge expected for France and Italy – according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

Brazil overtook the UK over the past year but has slipped to seventh in CEBR’s World Economic League Table rankings due to the weakness of its currency. The South American giant is expected to overtake the UK again in 2014.

The next decade will see the BRIC nations – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – cement their economic dominance as Europe suffers a gradual decline in standing.

Only the U.S. and Japan, the world’s third largest economy, will hold on to their places. Germany will decline two slots from fourth to sixth, but France and Italy will be the biggest losers. France is expected to fall from 5th to 9th, and Italy from 8th to 13th.

“We are poised to overtake France either in 2013 or 2014 as the economic effects of President Hollande’s 75pc tax policy and the difficulties of the euro drag France down,” CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams said. “By 2022, the Italian economy will be close to falling behind economically powerful emerging markets like Turkey and Mexico.”

Lower down the table, Spain, Switzerland, Norway and Belgium will all suffer big falls. CEBR expects India to overtake the UK by 2017 to become the largest economy in the Commonwealth and the end 2022 six places higher than today at the world’s fourth biggest.

Brazil will be fifth and Russia will have climbed two places to seventh. China will remain the world’s second biggest economy, but will have closed the gap on the U.S. At the moment it is 53pc as large as the U.S. but by 2022 it will be 83pc as large.

The next decade will also see the emergence of Indonesia as an economic powerhouse, rising six places to break into the top 10 for the first time.

“The league table shows the dramatic changes now taking place in the world’s economic geography with slow growing European economies falling back and Asian economies, even though their growth is slowing, catching up,” Mr McWilliams said.