India to become fifth largest economy next year: Jaitley

New Delhi : India is on track to surpass Britain next year to become the fifth largest economy in the world and to emerge among the “big three” global economies by 2040, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.

He said while India’s per capita income may still be modest, but the size of the economy was very large and growing at a fast pace.

“This year, in shear size, we have overtaken France. Next year, we’re likely to overtake Britain. And therefore we will be the fifth largest (economy in the world),” Jaitley said at the inauguration of the new building of Competition Commission of India.

The Minister said that other economies in the world were growing at a rate much slower than India’s.

“It won’t take a very long time to overtake those economies which are growing at 1 to 1.5 per cent if we grow at 7 to 8 per cent on an average. And if you look at 2030 or 2040, we are unquestionably going to be – as world projections are – among the big three in size,” he said.

Jaitley added that India still had a lot of avenues for pushing up growth over the next 10 to 20 years.

“For instance, growth is more in the north, south and the western parts of the country. The eastern side still has to grow faster. That’s an area where we will see growth. Women employment is an area where we will see their contribution coming into the growth process.”

Published on : Aug 30, 2018 at 13:30 IST

IANS