India slips to 7th spot in World Bank GDP rankings; UK, France improve positions

India has slipped to the seventh position in the global GDP rankings during 2018 after the UK and France overtook the country, said media reports. In fact, India lost its previous fifth position to the UK for a marginal difference. In 2017, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)  was at $2.65 trillion, followed by the UK at $2.64 trillion and France at $2.59 trillion, said a report in Business Standard. [caption id=“attachment_4317853” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] But the country could not retain its previous year’s achievement after the UK economy outpaced India at $2.82 trillion while the French GDP expanded to $2.78 trillion in 2018. India’s economy grew to $2.73 trillion, the report said citing World Bank data. Though India’s GDP grew from $2.65 trillion in 2017 to $2.73 trillion in 2018, this growth rate was not sufficient to maintain its lead against the UK and France. Experts said that the reason for India’s slip to 7th position was due to the movement of the rupee against the dollar, reported Business Today. The first four positions are held by the United States, China, Japan and Germany with a GDP of $20.5 trillion, $13.6 trillion, $5 trillion and $4 trillion, respectively, said the report. On 1 August, rating agency CRISIL sliced its estimate of India’s GDP growth by 20 basis points to 6.9 percent for this fiscal, following a triangulation of downside risks: weak monsoon, slowing global growth, and sluggish high-frequency data for the first quarter. The slowdown would be pronounced in the first half, while the second half should find support from expected monetary easing, consumption, and statistical low-base effect, CRISIL said, while releasing its report on the outlook for India in fiscal 2019 titled ‘Uphill trek’, according to a statement from the rating agency. In July this year, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar had said the target of achieving an economy of $5 trillion within 2024-25 was 'eminently' doable and the private sector would have to take the lead.