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UK ‘loses GDP rank as pound drops’
The plunging value of the pound has technically now seen France overtake Britain as the world’s fifth largest economy.
In the International Monetary Fund’s classification of countries’ GDP this spring Britain was at number five and France at number six, based on the size of GDP quoted in American dollars.
However, in a week which has seen sterling drop dramatically following UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcements at the Conservative Party Conference, the value of the UK’s £1,932billion GDP is now less than France’s €2,228bn.
In dollars, the UK figure is currently worth $2,401bn while France’s is $2,479bn, while converted into euros the UK figure is now equivalent to €2,152bn.
At the start of last week a pound was worth €1.16, but it has now dropped to €1.11 following Mrs May’s statement that EU exit clause Article 50 will be triggered before the end of March 2017, and that the UK may ask for a ‘hard Brexit’ without single market membership.
