In what be a historic moment for India in post-colonial era, India for the first time in 150 years managed to overtake erstwhile colonial master United Kingdom in terms of the size of the economy to become world’s sixth largest economy by GDP after the United States, China, Japan, Germany and France.
Amid Britain’s recent Brexit-related problems and India’s rapid economic growth, postcolonial underdog managed to attain this benchmark.
This dramatic shift has been driven by India’s rapid economic growth over the past 25 years as well downslide in the value of the pound over the last 12 months, a report published in Forbes magazine said.
“Once expected to overtake the UK GDP in 2020, the surpass has been accelerated by the nearly 20% 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,” the report said.
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Interestingly, economic think-tank Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) had, in December 2011, forecasted that India would become the “fifth largest by 2020” but India has crossed this significant milestone much sooner.
“Furthermore, this gap is expected to widen as India grows at 6 to 8% per annum compared to UK’s growth of 1 to 2% per annum 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 while celebrating India’s landmark, said, “India overtakes UK & becomes 5th largest GDP after USA, China, Japan & Germany.”
India overtakes UK & becomes 5th largest GDP after USA, China, Japan & Germany. India may have large population base but this is a big leap. pic.twitter.com/ANPUExHEyL
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) December 18, 2016
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Earlier on October 8, International Monetary Fund (IMF) too had predicted India to surpass Europeans by the end of the fiscal.
“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.
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