For the first time in 100 years, India pips UK to become World's 6th largest economy

For the first time in a 100 years, the Indian economy has overtaken United Kingdom's economy to become the world's sixth largest economy by GDP.

The top five economies in terms of GDP are: the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and France.

In February 2016, India had already surpassed China to become the world's fastest growing economy. In October 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted India's GDP will increase by 7.6% through 2017 and it will continue to retain the fastest growing economy in future.

According to a report in Forbes magazine, the shift was driven by India's rapid economic growth over the last 25 years along with a dip in the value of the pound due to Britain's recent Brexit.

"Once expected to overtake the UK GDP in 2020, the surpasso has been accelerated by the nearly 20 per cent decline in the value of the pound over the last 12 months, consequently UK's 2016 GDP of GBP 1.87 trillion converts to $2.29 trillion at exchange rate of GBP 0.81 per $1, whereas India's GDP of INR 153 trillion converts to $2.30 trillion at exchange rate of INR 66.6 per $1," the report said.

UK is projected to grow by just 1.8% in 2016 and 1.1% in 2017. Post Brexit, Britain's economy and currency has been struggling. The Indian economy, on the other hand, benefitted from the slump in prices of global commodities.