INDIA TO BE FIFTHLARGEST ECONOMY IN 2018: REPORT

LONDON: India is set to overtake the United Kingdom and France to become the world’s fifth-largest economy next year, a report said Tuesday.

Currently ranked seventh, India will move up to fifth place in 2018 and vault to third spot by 2032, the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a London-based consultancy, said in its annual rankings.

The Indian economy hit a three-year low in the first quarter of the current fiscal, after the government’s decision in November 2016 to scrap high-value banknotes and following a tax overhaul.

Growth slumped to 5.7% for the three months ending June but recovered slightly to 6.3% for the quarter ending September.

“Despite temporary setbacks... India’s economy has still caught up with that of France and the UK and in 2018 will have overtaken them both to become the world’s fifth-largest economy in dollar terms,” said CEBR deputy chairman Douglas McWilliams.

Cheap energy and a digital revolution will drive growth globally, the report said. The world’s growth will be dominated by Asian economies, including India, China and Japan.

The US, the world’s largest economy, will be overtaken by China in 2030, the report forecast, adding India would take that spot “at some time in the second half of this century”.

“Because the impact of President Trump on trade has been less severe than expected, the USA will retain its global crown a year longer than we anticipated in the last report.”

While Britain looks set to lag behind France over the next couple of years, Cebr predicted that Brexit’s effects on Britain’s economy will be less than feared, allowing it to overtake France again in 2020.