CEBR Top 10 Economies in 2014: UK overtakes France as number 5

The UK has surpassed France as the fifth biggest economy in the world, and the country is expected to overtake Germany by 2030, according to a new research.

Latest figures from the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) reveals that Britain has overtaken France in 2014, taking into account the £10bn ($15.6bn, €12.8bn) additional earnings from drugs and sex.

France does not include prostitution or narcotics income in its gross domestic product (GDP) calculations.

CEBR also projected that the UK will overtake Germany, which is suffering from a declining population and the weakness of the euro, within the next two decades for the first time since 1954.

CEBR Global's World Economic League Table (WELT) also revealed some other notable changes in the global economic structure.

China's recent upward revision to its GDP means that the country will overtake the US as the number one economy in 2025 rather than the earlier predicted 2028.

Further, India is expected to be the biggest economy in the Commonwealth, overtaking the UK within three years, and the Asian country is expected to become the world's third largest by 2024.

China, the US, India, Japan and Brazil would be the top five economies by 2030, according to CEBR.

The Russian economy has slumped to number 10 from number eight in 2014 given the continuing weakness in the rouble and the slide in oil prices. The country is not expected to show an immediate recovery and is forecast to stay there at least till 2020.

"The league table brings things back to hard figures. Countries who have invaded neighbouring countries and whose leaders spout aggressively nationalistic rhetoric are brought down to earth by their falls in the league table as their economies collapse," said CEBR chief executive, Douglas McWilliams.

"It also shows the dramatic changes now taking place in the world's economic geography, with slow-growing European economies falling back and Asian economies catching up."

Below are the top 10 economies in 2014 (previous year's rank in bracket)

1. The US (1)
2. China (2)
3. Japan (3)
4. Germany (4)
5. The UK (6)
6. France (5)
7. Brazil (7)
8. Italy (9)
9. India (10)
10. Russia (8)