The South American country of Brazil has officially surpassed the United Kingdom as the world’s sixth largest economy according to a recent report.

The report was revealed by the BBC and shows traditional superpowers losing some of their grip on the world economy as countries in Latin America and Asia continue to build out their economic infrastructures.

While that news isn’t great for UK the Center for Economics and Business Research says the country is set to overtake France’s economy by 2016.

Speaking to the BBC a CEBR economist noted:

“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.”

Brazil has been helped along by a population of more than 200 million people, that’s approximately three times the size of the UK population.

Brazil was also helped by a 7.5% increase in spending last year, although the Brazilian government has cut 2011 forecasting to just 3.5% after the economy drastically slowed in the third quarter as the country much like other parts of the world dealt with a worsening economic situation in Europe and high interest rates that have slowed lending.

The same research study also released 2020 economic forecast for the Top 10 countries economically speaking:

United States China; Japan Russia India Brazil Germany United Kingdom France Italy

Are you surprised to see where certain countries will rank when 2020 rolls around?