Changes take plase in top five world economies

Baku. 23 November. REPORT.AZ/ Britain has officially abandoned its claim to be the world's fifth largest economy giving it to France.

Report informs citing the CNN, treasury chief Philip Hammond acknowledged the slide on Wednesday, noting the new ranking in a series of statements meant to highlight the economy's strength. "Britain is the world's sixth largest economy," Hammond said in his closely-watched budget speech.

He refers to the data of the International Monetary Fund. In the rating, Britain with GDP of $ 2.565 was bypassed by France with a GDP of $ 2.575 trillion. The numbers show that France will narrowly squeak ahead of Britain in the group's 2017 ranking of global economies, with its advantage predicted to widen considerably in 2018.

This year will be the first time since 2013 that France has topped the UK in the ranking, according to the IMF.

The slide reflects a sharp deceleration in Britain's economic growth since it voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. The pound has weakened dramatically, consumer spending has slowed and prices have spiked.

The UK is expected to slide further.

In the IMF rankings in 2017, USA ranked the first ($ 19.4 trillion), China ($ 11.9 trillion) second, Japan ($ 4.9 trillion) third and Germany ($3.7 trillion) is fourth.