India overtakes UK to become fifth-largest economy
India is behind the United States, China, Japan and Germany.
India has overtaken Britain to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, reported Bloomberg on Friday.
India pushed the United Kingdom to the sixth spot in the last three months of 2021 and extended its lead in the first quarter of this year. The calculations were made by Bloomberg based on International Monetary Fund data on Gross Domestic Product figures and exchange rates.
However, in terms of per capita income, India ranks 144th among 194 countries, according to an International Monetary Fund report released in June last year. India’s per capita income last year was $2,277 (Rs 1.81 lakh), much lower than $47,334 (Rs 37.73 lakh) of the United Kingdom, according to World Bank data.
According to the Bloomberg calculations, the size of the Indian economy in nominal cash terms in the quarter through March was $854.7 billion (over 68 lakh crore). UK’s nominal cash in the same period was $816 billion (more than 65 lakh crore).
Nominal cash refers to the cash flow accounting for inflation in future.
Besides Bloomberg calculations, the forecast by the International Monetary Fund shows India overtaking the UK in dollar terms on an annual basis this year. This puts India just behind the United States, China, Japan and Germany.
The per capita incomes last year of the US was $69,287 (Rs 55.23 lakh). The figure was $12,556 (about Rs 10 lakh) for China, $50,801 (Rs 40.49 lakh) for Germany and $39,285 (Rs 31.31 lakh) for Germany, according to the World Bank.
"The IMF’s own forecasts show India overtaking the UK in $ terms on an annual basis this year, putting the Asian powerhouse behind just the US, China, Japan and Germany. A decade ago, India ranked 11th among the largest economies, while the UK was 5th."https://t.co/6EhYXAWXvf pic.twitter.com/seNEj9S3gs
— NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) September 3, 2022
Global ratings agency Moody’s has forecast India’s economy to grow for the current fiscal to 7.7%. While the agency had lowered its forecast for India from its previous estimate of 8.8% in May, the UK economy has been at a worse decline due to high inflation.
The European country is facing the fastest inflation in 40 years and rising risks of a recession that the Bank of England says may last till 2024, according to Bloomberg.
On Wednesday, data released by the Indian government showed that the country’s economy grew by 13.5% in the first quarter (April-June) of the financial year 2022-’23.
The growth rate, however, was below the expectations of the Reserve Bank of India, which earlier this month had projected the first quarter GDP growth to be at 16.2%.
