Developing economies now produce 41 per cent of the world's output, up from 36 per cent in 2000, according to the World Development Indicators 2008, released on Friday. ( Gulf )
The combined output of the world's economies reached $59 trillion in 2006. The World Bank has started using new measurements that take into account the differences in price levels between countries for arriving at the index.
China now ranks as the second largest economy in the world, and 5 of the 12 largest economies are developing economies.
"We live in a world of highly interdependent markets for goods, services, finance, labour, and ideas," said Alan Gelb, Acting chief economist of World Bank and senior vice-president for Development Economics.
"When we measure economies on a comparable global scale, the growing clout of developing countries comes into sharp relief."
Strong growth over the period has increased the shares of all developing regions except Latin America and the Caribbean, while the share of high-income economies fell by five per cent.
Inequalities between individuals are high in Latin America and the Carib-bean and Sub-Saharan Africa, where the income share of the richest is 20 per cent, and lower in South Asia and Europe and Central Asia where the ratio falls seven per cent.
"East Asia, Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa stand in between, but the estimate for the Middle East and North Africa is less reliable because many countries have no household surveys for estimating income distribution," the report said.
The UAE is planning to start its own household income survey prior to commissioning a consumer price index that will help it to measure inflation rates.
The WDI draws on a database of over 1,000 indicators covering 209 countries and territories.