‘India set to be 5th-largest economy’

LO N D O N : India looks set to leapfrog Britain and France next year to become the world’s fifthlargest economy in US dollar terms, a report showed yesterday.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) consultancy’s 2018 World Economic League Table painted an upbeat view of the global economy, boosted by cheap energy and technology prices.

India’s ascent is part of a trend that will see Asian economies increasingly dominate the top 10 largest economies over the next 15 years.

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

McWilliams said India’s growth had been slowed by restrictions on high-value banknotes and a new sales tax, a view shared by economists polled by Reuters.

China was likely to overtake the United States as the world’s No. 1 economy in 2032, said Cebr.

“Because the impact of US President Trump on trade has been less severe than expected, the US will retain its global crown a year longer than we anticipated in the last report,” said the 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 would be less than feared, allowing it to overtake France again in 2020.

Russia was vulnerable to low oil prices and too reliant on the energy sector, and looked likely to fall to 17th place among the world’s largest economies by 2032, from 11th now. Reuters