BOOMING India’s economy has overtaken Britain's for the first time in 150 years, the country's Home Affairs minister has claimed after forecasts showed the UK slipping down international rankings.

It comes amid a row over Britain's £12bn foreign aid budget as Whitehall plans to send another £130million of taxpayers' cash to India by the end of 2018.

3 Theresa May meets Indian PM Narendra Modi on a visit to Delhi earlier this month Credit: Getty Images

Indian government minister Kiren Rijiju announced on Twitter the nation had taken a "big leap" and become the fifth largest economy in the world - behind the US, China, Japan and Germany.

His comments came after a report by Forbes magazine suggested the UK had been overtaken by both France and India and now ranks seventh.

It blamed a collapse in the value of sterling of almost 20 per cent against the US dollar following the Brexit vote in June.

The financial journal estimated the UK's gross domestic product at $2.29trillion when converted to dollars, just pipped by India's $2.30trillion.

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Economists are wary of comparing the relative size of economies using volatile exchange rates.

The rupee has also fluctuated since the government suddenly withdrew higher-value banknotes in a crackdown on corruption and tax avoidance last month.

The International Monetary Fund's latest forecasts for 2016 still show the UK in fifth with a GDP of $2.65trillion, France sixth with $2.49trillion and India seventh on $2.25trillion.

3 Theresa May visited India in an effort to boost trade links after Brexit Credit: Getty Images

But India had been expected to leapfrog up to fifth by 2020, and more recent forecasts say it could happen in the next few months.

And the gap is set to widen as India's economy is predicted to grow by 7.6 per cent next year while the UK dawdles on 1.1 per cent.

The shift in economic power draws fresh focus on the bitter debate over our bloated foreign aid budget, which has ballooned by 144 per cent in a decade.

Former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell announced four years ago that aid to India would end by 2015, but that policy was ditched after pressure from Whitehall departments.

3 Britain gave India £185m last year and will give a further £130m by 2018 despite a promise to end lavish aid payments Credit: Getty Images

Despite promises to concentrate UK aid on the poorest nations, India received Britain's ninth-biggest handout last year.

Last year we gave India £185.4million - even though the nation has a space programme and itself dishes out aid to poorer countries.

Some £53.8million is set to be handed over this year, with at least a further £64.8million in the following two years.

MPs have called on ministers to cull the lavish overseas aid spending - with much of our cash believed to fall into the hands of crooks and terrorists.

Andrew Rosindell MP has questioned whether British taxpayers would accept the amount given to India when their government can invest £10bn in bullet trains.

The booming country also has more billionaires than the UK.

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