Poorer countries continue to grow faster, drive world economy - U.N.

The United Nations logo is seen on one of the front doors at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, August 31, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

GENEVA (Reuters) - Developing and former communist countries such as Brazil and Russia are heading for much faster growth this year than the developed world, the United Nations said on Thursday, meaning they will remain the main drivers of the world economy.

The UN's trade and development agency UNCTAD said in its annual survey of the global economy and the prospects for poorer nations that developing countries would grow 4.5 to 5 per cent in 2013 while the sputtering economies of the rich world would manage just one percent growth.