India has fallen in the global GDP rankings to the position of the seventh-largest economy in the world, according to World Bank data. India was overtaken by the United Kingdom and France in 2018, after having edged past them in 2017.
GDP figures for 2018 (in US dollars):
- USA: 20.5 trillion
- China: 13.6 trillion
- Japan: 4.9 trillion
- Germany: 3.9 trillion
- UK: 2.82 trillion
- France: 2.77 trillion
- India: 2.72 trillion
A slowdown in growth and fluctuations in currency have been attributed as the reasons behind the drop in rankings.
“In 2017, the rupee appreciated against the dollar, and in 2018 it depreciated against the dollar. So, it is largely due to currency fluctuation and the growth slowdown.”Devendra Pant, Chief Economist at India Ratings
In 2017, India at 2.65 trillion USD had gone past UK (2.64 trillion USD) and France (2.59 trillion USD).
The drop in rankings have come at a time when the government has been talking about making India a $5-trillion economy by 2024. PM Narendra Modi had claimed earlier this year that India could become the second-largest economy in the world by 2030.
In May 2019, India had lost the tag of being the fastest growing major economy to China, after India’s GDP growth rate was announced as having declined to 5.8% in the last quarter of the financial year 2018-’19, the slowest it has been in 17 quarters.
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