Exuding confidence that India would be among the top three global economies in the next 10-20 years, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently said the country is likely to surpass the United Kingdom to turn the fifth largest economy next year based on consumption and economic activity. He said this while inaugurating the new Competition Commission India office.
Jaitley said the country has potential to overtake large economies which are growing at a much lower rate than India, according to a report. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) was valued at $2.597 tr at the end of 2017 overtaking the French economy, which was valued at $2.582 tr last year. The UK economy stood at $2.94 tr.
However, India still lags far behind France in terms of per capita GDP because of the huge size of India’s population. India recorded a growth of 6.7 per cent in FY’18 and expected to accelerate to 7.4 per cent in the current financial year on pick up in industrial activity and good monsoon. India can already see the ripples of a consumption economy and the exponential growth taking place in several sectors will lead to a large number of domestic and international players, he said.
As the size of the economy expands, some will not comply with fair market regulation, indulge in cartelisation, have vertical or horizontal tie-ups and abuse dominant position to impact prices or dilute competition, and therefore, a regulatory mechanism to regulate all mergers and acquisitions would be required, he added.
