France surpasses U.K. as world's 5th-biggest economy

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Vive La France!

France has toppled Britain's fifth-place ranking of global economies.

That's according to Reuters' calculations.

Britain's GDP stood at 1.864 trillion pounds in 2015, according to the most recent figures from the International Monetary Fund.

The average exchange rate for the year in question is typically used for comparisons between nations, but when using the current exchange rate, France has edged slightly ahead of Britain.

With the pound falling below 1.17 euros overnight for the first time since 2013, that means the size of the British economy in 2015 is now equivalent to 2.172 trillion euros -- less than France's official GDP of 2.182 trillion euros last year, the wire service found.

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