Brazil has overtaken the UK as the world's sixth largest economy, according to a London-based research centre.

The shift is part of a larger trend in which emerging economies are out doing some European countries.

The south American country was still considered something of an economic underachiever a decade ago, but as its economy grew steadily in the past eight years, things started to change.

Government's anti-poverty measures further helped in lifting more than 40 million people into a new middle class.

Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports from Sao Paulo, Brazil.