India likely to surpass Britain to become world's 5th largest economy in 2019: Arun Jaitley

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said India is expected to surpass Britain in 2019 to become world's fifth largest economy. "This year, in terms of size, we have overtaken France. Next year we are likely to overtake Britain. Therefore, we will be the fifth largest (economy)," he said in the capital. 

Other economies in the world are growing at a much lesser rate, he said, adding that India has the potential to be among the top three economies of the world in the next 10-20 years. 

Earlier on Sunday, Jaitley had come down heavily on the former United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government highlighting a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that projected a positive transformation and reforms in the Indian economy in 2018 as compared to 2014.

The minister emphasised that in the last four years the economy has witnessed a series of reforms under the Modi government, both legislative and otherwise. He also said the economy has been able to come a long way, after the UPA's wrong decisions had let to high inflation, high fiscal deficit, high current account deficit, a standstill infrastructure, power sector and allocation of natural resources.

"The system has been substantially cleaned up and made more transparent. Decisiveness has led to easier decision making and made the economy stand out before several other countries," he added.

According to the IMF, "Stability-oriented macroeconomic policies and progress on structural reforms continue to bear fruit. Following disruptions related to the November 2016 currency exchange initiative and the July 2017 goods and service tax (GST) rollout, growth slowed to 6.7 percent in FY2017/18, but a recovery is underway led by an investment pick up."