1. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a mega trade bloc comprising 15 countries led by China. It came into existence 15th November 2020. The RCEP comprises the 10 ASEAN members and Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
The China-backed group is expected to represent at least 30% of the global GDP and will emerge as the largest free trade agreement in the world. The mega trade bloc is a landmark initiative, which is expected to boost commerce among the member-countries spread across the Asia-Pacific region. Experts are interpreting the beginning of RCEP as a major development that will help China and trade in the Asia-Pacific region in the post-COVID-19 scenario. India is yet to rejoin the group.
Australia & Japan are also members of QUAD (quadrilateral security dialogue) of which India and the United States of America are members.
2. Inflation scenario in India
India’s wholesale price inflation quickened to the highest level in eight months, reaching 1.48% in October 2020 as per provisional data, compared with 0% in October 2019 and 1.32% in September this year.
The WPI Food Index inflation slowed from 6.92% in September 2020 to 5.78% in October 2020, with vegetables inflation cooling down to 25.23% from 36.5% in September.
Inflation in potato prices touched 107.7%, while onions registered 8.5% inflation in October.
3. Global forecasting firm Oxford Economics on Thursday revised downwards its India growth forecast over the medium term to an average 4.5% over 2020-25, from its pre-pandemic projection of 6.5%.
4. Moody’s Investors Service has revised its GDP projection for India in 2020-21 to a 10.6% contraction compared with a 11.5% drop it had estimated. The rating agency also marginally raised its forecast for 2021-22 GDP growth to 10.8%, from 10.6%.
Notes:
* The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration among its members and other countries in Asia.
* The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD, also known as the Quad) is an informal strategic forum between the United States, Japan, Australia and India that is maintained by semi-regular summits, information exchanges and military drills between member countries. The forum was initiated as a dialogue in 2007 by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, with the support of Vice President Dick Cheney of the US, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India.
* Wholesale Price Index meaning: WPI measures the changes in the prices of goods sold and traded in bulk by wholesale businesses to other businesses. To put it simply, the WPI tracks prices at the factory gate before the retail level.
Wholesale Price Index, or WPI, measures the changes in the prices of goods sold and traded in bulk by wholesale businesses to other businesses. WPI is unlike the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks the prices of goods and services purchased by consumers.
* Out of the revision index (2011-12), a new WPI food index has been designed out of the food articles. The new index was launched on 12 May 2017. Already, a Food Price Index was there with WPI and this index is now restructured.
The WPI food index shows price changes in food items with price quotations from producers. On the other hand, the CPI Food Price Index uses price quotations from retailers. The WPI Food Index takes commodities from ‘Food Products’ of Manufactured Goods and ‘Food Articles’ from Primary Articles group.
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