India has surpassed France to become world's sixth-largest economy in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), according to figures released by World Bank.
India's GDP reached $2.597 trillion in 2017, while it was at US $2.582 trillion for France, the World Bank said. The United States, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom occupy top 5 places with GDP of US $19.390 trillion, US $12.237 trillion, US $4.872 trillion, US $3.677 trillion, US $2.622 trillion respectively.
In terms of per capita GDP, the figure in India is much lower than that in France. While India's population is 1.34 billion, France has 67 million people.
With the growth forecast of 7.3% in 2018-19, India has been termed world’s fastest growing major emerging economy. The World Bank has forecast that the Indian economy will grow at the pace of 7.5% for 2019-20 and the subsequent year.
Growth in India is projected to advance 7.3% in FY 2018-19 (1 April 2018-31 March 2019) and 7.5% in FY 2019-20, reflecting robust private consumption and strengthening investment, the World Bank said in its June 2018 edition of the Global Economic Prospect report.
Earlier, a report by British brokerage HSBC said that India is likely to overtake Japan and Germany to become the third largest economy in the next 10 years.
Its estimated show India will be a USD 7 trillion economy in 2028, as compared to less than USD 6 trillion and USD 5 trillion for Germany and Japan, respectively.
Last year, London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) had predicted that India would become world’s fifth largest economy surpassing France and the UK by the end of 2018.
The ninth-edition of the World Economic League Table (WELT) released by CEBR said that Indian economy will overtake the UK and France in real money dollar terms by the end of this year. India will become the world's third-largest economy by 2032, said the report.
