In a substantial growth, India has managed to surpass its erstwhile colonial master United Kingdom in terms of economy – first time after almost 150 years. The feat was achieved as a result of Britain’s recent Brexit-related issues along with India’s rapid economic development.
Significantly, the striking shift has been driven by India’s speedy economic growth over the past decades. Plus, decrease in the value of the pound over the last one year also played a major role in the development, said a report published in Forbes.
“Once expected to overtake the UK GDP in 2020, the surpasso has been accelerated by the nearly 20 per cent decline in the value of the pound over the last 12 months, consequently UK’s 2016 GDP of GBP 1.87 trillion converts to $2.29 trillion at exchange rate of GBP 0.81 per $1, whereas India’s GDP of INR 153 trillion converts to $2.30 trillion at exchange rate of INR 66.6 per $1,” said the report.
Interestingly, in Dec 2011, the economic think-tank Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) too predicted that India would become the “fifth largest by 2020.” But India has surpassed this major milestone much sooner than expected.
“Furthermore, this gap is expected to widen as India grows at 6 to 8 per cent p.a. compared to UK’s growth of 1 to 2 per cent p.a. until 2020, and likely beyond. Even if the currencies fluctuate that modify these figures to rough equality, the verdict is clear that India’s economy has surpassed that of the UK based on future growth prospects,” the report said.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju expressed pleasure over India’s landmark feat saying, “India overtakes UK & becomes 5th largest GDP after USA, China, Japan & Germany.” “India may have large population base but this is a big leap,” he added.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) too predicted India to surpass Europeans by the year end. “India is the seventh largest economy worth $2.29 trillion – just $50 billion less than the current UK’s GDP, which will be bridged by end of this fiscal,” IMF had said.
