France could take advantage of the difficulties of its neighbor across the English Channel. Next year, France is expected to become the sixth largest economy in the world again, according to forecasts from the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), overtaking the United Kingdom, which would fall to seventh place.
However, it is not thanks to the strength of its economy that France would gain a rank, but rather thanks to, or because of, Brexit. The shock the UK will face starting March 2019, the effective date of its divorce from the European Union, will force it to drop in this ranking.
This will be even more the case if the increasingly likely scenario of a “no deal” were to occur.
Germany the only European representative in the top 5 in 2032
The United States remains the world’s largest economic power, ahead of China, which won’t be able to claim the top spot until 2032.
The CEBR also estimates that by that date, there will only be one European country left — Germany — in the top 5 of the world’s economies. Last year, India overtook France to take the fifth place.
