India becomes sixth-largest economy in world, beats several EU nations

International Monetary Fund expects India to re-emerge as one of the fastest growing major economies in the 2018 - 2019 period, projecting the country`s growth rate at 7.4 percent in 2018.

NEW DELHI: India surpassed France in World Banks' annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ranking 2017 to become the sixth largest economy across the globe.

With a GDP of $2.597 trillion, India pushed France to the seventh spot and ranked ahead of several European Union (EU) states. 

United States emerged as the largest economy in the world with a GDP of $19.3 trillion. China came second with GDP $12.23 trillion, followed by Japan at the third spot with GDP $4.87 trillion.

Germany and United Kingdom are the other two nations that ranked ahead of India.

India's neighbour nation Pakistan was ranked at number 40 in the list with a GDP of $ 304,952 million. 

The country's economy touched a seven-quarter high of 7.7 per cent in the January-March quarter of the financial year 2018, showing steady recovery from the effects of demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). However, the GDP growth stood at 6.7 per cent in 2017-18, the lowest rate in four years.

Despite being the sixth-largest economy of the world, India's per capita GDP continues to rank low at just $1963.55 per individual. 

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated India is expected to re-emerge as one of the fastest growing major economies in the 2018 - 2019 period, projecting the country's growth rate at 7.4 percent in 2018.

The international financial organisation also forecast a rate of growth of 7.8 percent for 2019. 

India, with around 1.34 billion inhabitants, is poised to become the world's most populous nation, whereas the French population stands at 67 million.