Enhancing India CARIFORUM Economic Relations and Prospects for Cooperation

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MACROECONOMIC OVERVIEW OF THE CARIFORUM REGION

The Caribbean region is located, between North and South America, in the Caribbean Sea. The region lies southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and North America, east of Central America, and north of South America. The Caribbean region is rich in natural resources like mineral oils, bauxite, iron, nickel, and timber among others 5 . Apart from rich endowments of minerals and commodities, the countries in this region are endowed with scenic beauty, including excellent beaches ample sunshine, and are thus, big tourist attractions. The focus of this study is the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) Region. The Caribbean Forum consists of 15 states namely: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. As of 2020, the total GDP of these countries stands at US$ 160 billion, with a population of 29 million 6 . The GDP of CARIFORUM countries which stood at US$ 26.7 billion in 1980, has witnessed a six-fold growth to reach US$ 180.1 billion in 2019 (Figure 1) . Economic growth accelerated with the onset of the 21 st century. This accelerated growth can be attributed to the boom in commodity prices, which is also termed as the ‘Commodity Supercycle’ 7 . This commodity supercycle, which began in 2000 and continued till 2012, was a result of various factors such as strong growth in emerging economies around the world, especially BRIC economies. Thus, an increased demand led to increase in commodity prices. Apart from this, following the

5 CARICOM Caribbean Community – Our Resources 6 IMF WEO- October 2021 7 Commodity Supercycle- A trend in which international prices of several commodities increased steadily and simultaneously

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Enhancing India-CARIFORUM Economic Relations and Prospects for Cooperation