India to overtake UK, France to become fifth-largest economy in 2018: Report

Moving past the global economic powerhouses like the UK, Germany and France, the Indian economy would become the world's fifth largest by 2018 - a major jump from its 10th rank currently, a report has said.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) consultancy's 2018 World Economic League Table showed an upbeat view of the global economy, boosted by cheap energy and technology prices.

"India, the world's 10th biggest economy in 2011, would become the fifth largest by 2018," economic think-tank Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), the report said.

India's rise is part of a trend that will see Asian economies increasingly dominate the top 10 largest economies over the next 15 years.

"India's economy has caught up with that of France and the UK and in 2018 will have overtaken them both to become the world's fifth largest economy in dollar terms," said Douglas McWilliams, Cebr deputy chairman.

According to the latest data available with the World Bank, India was the world's 9th largest economy at the end of 2010 with a size of USD 1.73 trillion (based on the GDP figures at the current U.S. dollar rates).

The World Bank data puts the U.S. as the world's largest economy (USD 14.6 trillion) for 2010, followed by China, Japan, Germany, France, the U.K., Brazil, Italy, India and Canada in the top ten. However, the 2010 figures were not available for all the countries, including Russia.

As per the CEBR projections, the U.S. would remain the world's largest economy, followed by China, Japan, Russia and India in the top five in 2020.

The CEBR report has named the U.S. as the world's biggest for 2011, followed by China, Japan, Germany and France in the top five positions.

China is likely to overtake the United States as the world's No.1 economy in 2032, Cebr has also said.

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