India Beats France to Become the World's Sixth Largest Economy

According to an analysis on the data compiled by the World Bank, India surpassed France to emerge as the world's sixth largest economy in 2017. It also said that the nation could likely beat the United Kingdom, which is in the fifth position as per the data.

With a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.59 trillion in 2017, India became the sixth largest economy, pushing France to the seventh position. The data showed that the GDP of France stood at $2.58 trillion, while the UK that is currently facing Brexit blues, reported a GDP of $2.62 trillion. According to the data, UK's GDP is about $25 billion more than that of India.

For 2017, the United States of America was reported as the world's largest economy with a size of $19.39 trillion, followed by China ($12.23 trillion), Japan ($4.87 trillion) and Germany ($3.67 trillion). The other three countries to make it to the top ten are Brazil (8th), Italy (9th) and Canada (10th).

In recent years, various reform measures have been taken to improve ease of doing business by the Indian government. These reforms include the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code). In the March 2018 ended quarter, the nation's economy grew by 7.7 percent aided by higher government spending and investment.

In the IMF' World Economic Outlook released in April this year, the size of the Indian economy was pegged at $2.61 trillion, ahead of France with a GDP of $2.58 trillion and the size of the UK's economy was pegged at $2.62 trillion, slightly bigger than India.

Inputs from PTI