India will "leapfrog" Britain and France to become the world's fifth largest economy in 2018, ahead of an oncoming major global economic shift towards Asia, according to a British research organisation.
The World Economic League Table (WELT) 2018 released by Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said that in dollar terms, India will rise from its seventh rank to overtake those European economies next year despite the stumble of demonetisation and the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Indian infrastructural projects will rebuild the world's most populous country, which will spend an amount as large as Canada's GDP on infrastructure.
Key projects include the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, the Indian Smart Cities Project and more than 80,000 kms of new highways.
It was only in 1906 that the UK economy overtook the Indian economy, while the French economy was smaller than the Indian economy until 1951.
The growth in the Indian economy will also drive the rest of South Asia. Korea and Indonesia are expected to join list of the world's top 10 economies, with Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines and Pakistan making the top 25 list. Its other South-Asian counter parts like Pakistan will rise from the 41st position in 2017 to 25th in 2032, while Bangladesh will rise from the 43rd position to 31st in 2032.
Regarding China, the report stated that the country will overtake the US economy in 2030. This remains a remarkable achievement from an economy that was only 12 per cent the size of the US economy as recently as 2000, it added.
Since the impact of US President Donald Trump on trade has been less severe than expected, the report said the United States will retain the number one spot for a year longer, till 2029, than it was anticipated in the 2017.
