India beats UK to become world’s 5th biggest economy

India became the fifth largest economy after UK slipped down, delivering a further blow to the government in London. India surpassed Britain in the final three months of 2021, reports said.

The Indian economy is forecast to grow more than 7% this year. The calculation is based in US dollars. The size of Indian economy in ‘nominal’ cash terms in the quarter through March was $854.7 billion.

The IMF’s forecasts also show India overtaking UK in dollar terms on an annual basis this year. Now, the Asian powerhouse is behind US, China, Japan and Germany.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee depreciated 24 paise to close at 79.80 against the US dollar on Friday ending the week on the weak note.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, rupee ended at 79.80, as against 79.56 against the US dollar.

"Rupee traded in mixed range in the week between 79.25-79.95 closing the week on a flat but broadly weak note, as dollar index and FII's selling pressure added resistance to rupee whereas Crude price fall and domestic sector performance along with banks positive momentum gave support to the rupee," said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst at LKP Securities.

Dollar index, which gauges the the strength of greenback against the basket of six major currencies were at 109.273.

Brent crude oil prices were at $94.25 a barrel by the closing of Indian market hours.

Meanwhile, Sensex ended 36.74 points or 0.06 per cent up at 58,803.33, and Nifty ended 3.35 points or 0.02 per cent down at 17,539.45. Around 1,769 shares have advanced, 1,656 shares declined, and 142 shares remained unchanged.

HDFC, ITC, Larsen and Toubro, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank were gainers on the BSE. BSE SmallCap index ended higher, however, BSE MidCap and LargeCap fell.