Brazil is likely to lose its position as the world's seventh largest economy to India, due to the country's lukewarm economic growth this year.

The prediction comes from the Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU), a British consulting and advisory firm.

The EIU puts nominal Brazilian GDP at US$2.12 trillion for the year, compared to US$2.48 trillion for India. India is also set to overtake Italy, currently the world's eighth largest economy.

India had been widely predicted to overtake Brazil at some point this decade, because of its high growth rates.

Brazil's persistent poor performance and the recovery of the Indian economy after a few hiccups in recent years have made the change highly likely this year.

Brazilian economic growth has been just 2% since 2011, less than half of the average growth rate that had been predicted for the country midway through the last decade.

The Indian economy has also slowed down, growth rates having hit double figures in 2010. It fell to 4.7% two years later.

However, in 2014, the Indian economy showed signs of recovery, while the Brazilian economy remained stagnant.

This year, India is expected to expand again, with the EIU predicting a high of 6.5%, compared to 6% last year, while Brazil's growth is not expected to exceed 1%.

Changes in the rankings of the world's largest economies are not unusual, and occasionally they prove to be unsustainable.

Brazil overtook the United Kingdom to reach sixth place in 2011, but fell back to seventh a year later.

India's ascension, however, is likely to be definitive, given the country's demographic expansion and urbanization.

CAUSES OF THE RECOVERY

India's recovery began after the government of Prime Minister Narenda Modi took power, in May 2014. Modi has managed to implement a reformist agenda.

According to Omar Hamid, head of the Asian risk department at the consulting firm IHS, there is a perception that the new government "is doing a lot more" than the previous one, which had been mired in a series of corruption scandals.

Among the changes introduced are measures to create a more favorable environment to business. In October, for example, Modi announced a plan to reduce the country's high labor costs.

For Robert Wood, assistant director of risk at EIU, the change of the consensus on India began before the current government took power, with the nomination of Raghuram Rajan, ex-chief economist of the IMF, as head of the Central Bank, in September 2013.

As soon as he took up his post, Rajan promoted three high interest rates which helped to get inflation under control.

India has also benefited from the fall of oil prices, which has also contributed to the decline of inflation as well as stabilizing the country's deficit.