Recent Economic Trends

Recent Economic Trends
RBI increase repo rate 35 bps

India (RBI) raised the policy repo rate by 35 basis points (bps) to 6.25%, downshifting gears from consecutive increases of 50 bps, and scaled down GDP growth hopes for the year to 6.8% from 7%.
A 100 basis points equals one percentage point.
The central bank retained its inflation projection for 2022-23 at 6.7%, noting that inﬂation will ease but stay well above the 6% upper tolerance limit set for the RBI.

Reports and Indices
Global Wage Report 2022-23

Report, by International Labour Organisation (ILO), presents an analysis of how concurrent crises – COVID-19 pandemic followed by cost-of-living crisis – have impacted wages and purchasing power across countries and regions.

Key highlights of the Report

Rising inflation is causing real wage growth to dip into negative figures in many countries thereby reducing purchasing power.
On average, Wage employees lost six weeks of wages due to COVID-19 crisis.
Low wage earners, workers in the informal economy and women wage earners group suffered most.

India Inequality Report 2022 : Digital Divide released by OXFAM India

It is an annual report to highlight ongoing inequality crises in the country.
The 2022 report highlights the extent of digital divide in India and its impact on essential services such as education, health and financial inclusion.
Oxfam India is a non-profit organization working to support child education, empowering women & fighting against inequality in India.

Key highlights of report

61% of men owned mobile phones in 2021, compared to just 31% women.
Only 31% of the rural population uses the Internet compared to 67% of their urban counterparts.
Use of computer devices has decreased (post-COVID) in rural areas. Likelihood of a digital payment by the richest 60% is four times more than the poorest 40% individuals, households, businesses
Maharashtra has the highest internet penetration, while Bihar has the lowest.

Recommendations to bridge digital divide

Improve internet availability in rural and hard-to-reach areas through community networks and public Wi-Fi/ internet access points.
Government needs to improve affordability by investing in digital infrastructure, bringing a strong regulatory framework and lowering taxes on computers and phones.
Conduct digital literacy camps, especially in rural India, and digitize panchayats and schools.
Grievance redressal mechanism to handle EdTech and Healthtech related complaints.

Note

Digital divide refers to “the gap between and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard to both their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTS) and to their use of the internet for a wide variety of activities.
This is different from the State of Inequality in India Report released by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).