India’s now World’s sixth biggest economy: WB

In a shot in the arm for Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government ahead of an election year, the World Bank has ranked India as the world’s sixth largest economy, leaping ahead of now seventh-placed France.

According to the latest data on gross domestic product (GDP) for the countries in 2017, United States has topped the list while China is on the second position. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) stood at $2.597 trillion at the end of 2017, compared with $2.582 trillion for France.

The other economies whose GDP size is bigger than India are Japan, Germany and Britain at the third, fourth and fifth place respectively.

The World Bank report comes on the back of a similar projection by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year, which said that India could grow at 7.4% in 2018 and 7.8% in 2019, leaving China behind. The IMF projected China’s growth rate at 6.6% and 6.4% in 2018-19.

India’s economy grew 7.7% in January-March quarter, which was a two-year high growth rate.

Last month, the World Bank had forecast a growth rate of 7.3% for India this year and 7.5% for the next two years, making it the fastest growing country among major emerging economies.

A top World Bank official had said that India’s economy was robust, resilient and had potential to deliver sustained growth.

Last year, the World Bank also improved India’s ranking and for the first time moved it into the top 100 in its Ease of Doing Business global rankings on the back of sustained business reforms over the past several years. Prior to that India was ranked at 130.

The report also recognised India as one of the top 10 improvers, having implemented reforms in wight out of 10 ‘Doing Business’ indicators. India was the only large country last year to have achieved such a significant shift.

An overview on India on the World Bank’s official website posted recently said that poverty had declined since 2004-05, although short-term disruptions from demonetisation and depressed food prices might have moderated the pace.