India passed the United Kingdom in the final three months of last year to become the fifth biggest economy in the world, according to gross domestic product figures from the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg reported over the weekend.

India extended its lead in the first quarter of this year, according to GDP figures from the IMF, as the size of its economy in "nominal" cash terms in the quarter through March was $854.7 billion, while that of the U.K. was only $816 billion.

The U.K. is likely to have decreased even further since then, as GDP in the U.K. grew by only 1% in cash terms in the second quarter and, after adjusting for inflation, went down by 0.1%. 

Britain's drop in the international rankings behind its former colony comes as Conservative Party members choose Prime Minister Boris Johnson's successor on Monday, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss expected to defeat former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in the runoff, Bloomberg reported.

The Indian economy is expected to grow more than 7% this year, while the U.K. faces the fastest inflation in four decades and increasing risks of a recession that the Bank of England indicates may last well into 2024.

A decade ago, India ranked 11th among the largest economies in the world, but now is behind only the United States, China, Japan and Germany in the international rankings.

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