India pips Britain to become world's 5th largest economy

Mumbai: For the first time in over 100 years, India has piped the United Kingdom to become the world's 5th largest economy, a report published in Forbes magazine said.

“This dramatic shift has been driven by India’s rapid economic growth over the past 25 years as well as Britain's recent woes, particularly with the Brexit,” the Forbes magazine report said.

The development may also be attributed to Britain voting out of the 28-memebr economic block, the European Union.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju took to twitter to share the news. He wrote:

India overtakes UK & becomes 5th largest GDP after USA, China, Japan & Germany. India may have large population base but this is a big leap. pic.twitter.com/ANPUExHEyL — Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) December 18, 2016

Indian economy was expected to overtake that of the UK’s in the year 2020 but the acceleration in “surpasso” came with the British pound falling nearly 20 percent over the last 12 months, the report said.

"Once expected to overtake the UK GDP in 2020, the surpasso has been accelerated by the nearly 20 percent decline in the value of the pound over the last 12 months, consequently UK's 2016 GDP of GBP 1.87 trillion converts to $2.29 trillion at exchange rate of GBP 0.81 per $1, whereas India's GDP of INR 153 trillion converts to $2.30 trillion at exchange rate of INR 66.6 per $1," the report said.

Whereas India’s GDP of Rs 153 trillion converts to $2.30 trillion at an exchange rate of Rs 66.6 per $, report added.

With this, the gap between the two big economies is further expected to widen as India grows at 6 to 8 percent a year whereas the UK registers a growth of 1 to 2 percent annually.