In 2017, the US was the world's largest economy, with a size of $19.39 trillion, followed by China ($12.23 trillion) in second place. Japan ($4.87 trillion) and Germany ($3.67 trillion) are third and fourth, respectively. Jaitley said the likelihood of India becoming the fifth-largest economy next year is in consonance with the rest of the narrative.
“Being the fastest growing economy for the last four years, we can look at the next decade as one of economic expansion. We have already seen a significant move up in India’s ranking in the ease of doing business and as a preferred investment destination,” he said. Obviously, he said, India has started witnessing many of the advantages of a fast growing economy.
“More consumption, more production, more industries, an expanding service sector, greater urbanisation, many more jobs, more economic activity, and certainly more revenue,” he said. India, he said, stands to be tested in the midst of a global challenge thrown up on account of international crude oil prices and an impending trade war.
However, he sounded a word of caution that there would be a very significant difference in the per capital of India and France, due to disparity in the size of the two countries.
Differentiating between the economic management of the central government and the previous Congress governments, he said that ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over, the government’s own yardstick for performance had become stiffer.
He said the challenges were—how quickly are we able to deplete the poverty levels of a section of our people; how are we able to translate the advantages of faster growth to rural India, which has always been less advantaged; how are we able to bring a significant section of people into the neo-middle class so that their aspirations can also be met with.
He said the Congress provided India’s poor with a slogan. Prime Minister Modi has given them resources. This will ensure faster growth and lead to a faster depletion in the poverty.