A late Friday-released UN report said that, by the year 2020, the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - will be more than the aggregate GDP of the US, Canada and other European countries.

The United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) 2013 Human Development Report said that, without taking into account the output of Russia and South Africa, the "combined economic output" of Brazil, India, and China - the three leading developing nations - would apparently be enough to exceed the aggregate production of the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, and Italy.

Further noting that the growth phenomenon is not limited to only the BRICS middle income countries, the UNDP report pointed out that, over the last few decades, greater human development gains have been made by more than 40 emerging nations than would have been predicted.

According to the report, the 21st century world is being radically shaped by the rise of the South, a term which refers to developing countries. The report specifically mentioned that developing countries were not only driving economic growth, but were also lifting hundreds of millions of people from poverty, and making additions of billions of people to a new global middle class.

Noting that "the rise of the South is unprecedented in its speed and scale," the UNDP report said: "Never in history have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically and so fast."