India surpasses France to become the world’s sixth-biggest economy, pushing France to seventh place, as per the updated World Bank figures for 2017.
India’s gross domestic product (GDP) was $2.597 trillion at the end of last year, against $2.582 trillion for France.
There was a strong economic growth from July 2017 after several quarters of slowdown blamed on economic policies pursued by the Modi Government.
India, with a population of around 1.34 billion inhabitants, is poised to become the world’s most populous nation, whereas France’ population stands at 67 million.
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This means that the country’s per capita GDP continues to be just a fraction of that of France which is still roughly 20 times higher, as per the World Bank figures.
Manufacturing and consumer spending have been the main drivers of the Indian economy last year, after a slowdown blamed on the de-monetisation drive that Modi imposed at the end of 2016, as well as a chaotic implementation of a new harmonised VAT regime.
India has doubled its GDP within a decade and is expected to become a key economic engine in Asia, even as China slows down.
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According to the International Monetary Fund, India is projected to generate growth of 7.4% this year and 7.8% in 2019, boosted by household spending and a tax reform whereas the world’s expected average growth is 3.9%
The London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research, a consultancy, said at the end of last year that India would overtake both Britain and France in terms of GDP this year , and had a good chance of becoming the world’s third-biggest economy by 2032.
With a GDP of $2.622 trillion, at the end of 2017, Britain stood to be the world’s fifth-biggest economy
The US is the world’s top economy, followed by China, Japan and Germany.
