- The United States, China, Japan and Germany still take the top four spots as the world's largest economies.
- Some rankings have shifted as a result of the pandemic while one country fell off the top 10 list, according to CNBC analysis of the International Monetary Fund's economic forecasts.
A child runs past a wall mural depicting healthcare workers wearing face masks along a road in New Delhi, India on March 21, 2021.Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images
SINGAPORE — The Covid-19 pandemic has shaken up the ranking of the world's largest economies after sending many countries into their worst economic recessions in recent history.
The United States, China, Japan and Germany still take the top four spots as the world's largest economies — but some rankings have shifted as a result of the pandemic while one country fell off the top 10 list, according to CNBC analysis of the International Monetary Fund's economic forecasts.
CNBC compared nominal gross domestic product in U.S. dollars across countries provided in the IMF's World Economic Outlook database.
Nominal GDP estimates the market value of all finished goods and services produced in an economy but doesn't strip out changes in price levels, or inflation — and can therefore overstate or understate the real economic value.
Still, nominal GDP values denominated in a common currency are a way of measuring and comparing economic sizes of different countries, and provide a glimpse of how developments — such as the pandemic — affect economies differently.
Here are the major changes in the ranking of the world's 10 largest economies before and after the Covid outbreak.
India falls behind the U.K.
India, which became the world's fifth largest economy in 2019, slipped to sixth place behind the U.K. last year.
The South Asian country would not regain fifth place in the global economic ranking until 2023, according to CNBC analysis of IMF data.
India was hit by strict lockdowns last year as the country struggled to contain the coronavirus. Its economy was projected by the IMF to contract 8% in the fiscal year that ended in March 2021.
