New Delhi, April 26: $1,000,000,000,000.

Better start counting fast because the party may be over before you reach the last zero.

India has become a $1-trillion economy — the decisive thrust coming from a rising rupee.

The figure is largely a result of conversion rates and purists would dismiss it as an arithmetic rope-trick.

But patriots among the one billion-plus Indians can rejoice: only 11 other countries in the world have gross domestic product (GDP) — the value of all goods and services in a year — of more than $1 trillion .

India’s GDP crossed trillion dollars for the first time when the rupee appreciated to below 41 (against a dollar) yesterday, Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse said in a report.

The bank put the country’s GDP around Rs 41,00,000 crore, a little more than $1 trillion at the current rate of Rs 40.76 per dollar. The GDP was $900 billion a month ago when the rupee was at 45.

At $944 billion, market capitalisation on Indian stock exchanges is also close to a trillion dollars, the bank said. Market capitalisation is the total value of shares traded on the exchanges.

Analysts said the trillion-dollar GDP augurs well for stocks. Stocks of as many as eight countries enjoyed sharp spurts after the milestone was crossed.

All these head-spinning figures may not make much of a difference to your life, other than giving you a nagging headache.

But consider what you can do with a trillion dollars. The amount can buy as many as 3,135 Airbus A380s – the superjumbo featuring in the report at the bottom.

Sickened by the greed for the greenbacks? Here’s a redeeming option: if you were to distribute $1 trillion evenly among the people on this planet, each would get $150 (Rs 6,000).

However, if the rupee goes down — such fluctuations occur at the drop of a hat — the trillion bubble will burst.

Another sobering thought: the US smashed the trillion barrier in 1970.

The Others

Trillion-dollar economies
US, Japan, Germany,
China, UK, France,
Italy, Canada, Spain,
Brazil, Russia