The World Bank data for 2018 showed that India fell two spots in global GDP ranking to seventh place compared with the fifth position it took in the year 2017. The UK and France forged ahead this year, cementing their place at the fifth and sixth spots, respectively. India had emerged as the sixth largest economy in 2017 while France was pushed to the seventh place in the global GDP league table.
The US remained the largest economy in the world with a GDP of $20.5 trillion, followed by China and Japan, with economy sizes of $13.6 trillion and nearly $5 trillion, respectively. Germany ($4 trillion), the UK ($2.8 trillion) and France ($2.77 trillion) took the fourth, fifth and sixth positions, respectively. India’s GDP was at $2.7 trillion in 2018. Notably in 2017, India was at $2.65 trillion, UK at $2.64 trillion and France at $2.5 trillion, helping the third-largest economy in Asia to emerge as the fifth largest economy.
CRISIL had earlier cut India's GDP growth estimate to 6.9 per cent from 7.1 per cent for FY20. The adjustment came amid weak rainfall in June and slowing global growth, with another reason being sluggish data for the first quarter. “The crucial question, therefore, is whether a trough is in sight. Given the fiscal constraints, public spending is unlikely to have the heft to pull growth above seven per cent. And some of the recent, and much-needed, reforms would pay off only over the medium term. There would, therefore, be some near-term onus on monetary policy to stimulate. But how effective that can be is the big question,” said Dharmakirti Joshi, Chief Economist at CRISIL.
India still remains the fastest growing major economy in the world although growth is estimated to slow to 7% in the current fiscal that ends in March. China is expected to face a sharper slowdown due to the ongoing tariff war with the United States. The government has unveiled a plan to emerge as a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 and the Economic survey for 2018-19 has said that the country needs to sustain a real GDP growth rate of 8% to achieve the goal. However, not every analyst was convinced with the promise. According to them, the target is too ambitious to achieve.
