PARIS (Agencies) – India has become the world’s sixth-biggest economy,pushing France into seventh place, according to updated World Bank figuresfor 2017.

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) amounted to $2.597 trillion at the endof last year, against $2.582 trillion for France.

The country’s economy rebounded strongly from July 2017, after severalquarters of slowdown. India, with a population of around 1.34 billion, ispoised to become the world’s most populous nation, whereas the Frenchpopulation stands at 67 million.

This means that India’s per capita GDP continues to amount to just afraction of that of France which is still roughly 20 times higher,according to World Bank figures.

Manufacturing and consumer spending were the main drivers of the Indianeconomy last year, after a stutter blamed on demonetisation andimplementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

India has doubled its GDP within a decade and is expected to power ahead asa key economic engine in Asia, even as China slows down.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India is projected togenerate growth of 7.4 per cent this year and 7.8 per cent in 2019, boostedby household spending and a tax reform.

This compares to the world’s expected average growth of 3.9 per cent. TheLondon-based Centre for Economics and Business Research, a consultancy,said at the end of last year that India would overtake both Britain andFrance this year in terms of GDP, and had a good chance to become theworld’s third-biggest economy by 2032. At the end of 2017, Britain wasstill the world’s fifth-biggest economy with a GDP of $2.622 trillion. TheUS is the world’s top economy, followed by China, Japan and Germany.