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The Latest: On May 28 2024, the Irish fast fashion retailer, Primark, opened its first store in Hungary after announcing plans in 2019 to expand in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This store opening marks Primark's 17th international market and makes Hungary its sixth market in the CEE region.

Implications: Known for its competitive prices

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• Despite government commitments to hold the peg through the rest of 2024, we believe a one-time devaluation (as a first step towards removing the cepo) or acceleration of the crawling peg in Q4 2024 is likely. This underpins our forecast that the peso is likely to average ARS1,050/USD in 2024 and end the year at ARS1,200/USD.
• We forecast that

The Latest: On May 29 2024, Merck announced the acquisition of EyeBio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company specialising in ophthalmology drug development. Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will pay US1.3bn upfront and another US1.7bn contingent on achieving certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones

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• We continue to forecast that Canada’s current account balance will improve from -0.7% of GDP in 2023 to around 0.0% this year, broadly in line with consensus expectations.
• Weakness in imports linked to a soft domestic economic outlook and strength in energy exports as the Trans Mountain pipeline becomes operational will drive the improvement

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• Saudi Arabia’s medical devices market will grow steadily over our five-year forecast period, driven by Vision 2030 healthcare objectives.
• Saudi Arabia will continue to adopt innovative medical devices to tackle its chronic disease burden and improve patient outcomes.
• The expansion of multinational healthcare and medical device companies in

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• Economic activity is set to benefit from improving transport capacity in the Panama Canal because of recovering water levels and increasing grain cargoes in the second half of 2024.  
• However, the impact on GDP growth will be lagging, and weighed down by the closure of the Cobre Panamá copper mine late last year.  
• Limited fiscal space and a

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• Malaysia's 2024 Budget introduced sweeping tax reforms aimed at stimulating local industries and channelling investment into key sectors including advanced manufacturing.
• While Malaysia's corporate income tax rate is relatively high compared to some of its Asian peers, the recent targeted investment incentives will improve the market's

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• Declining inflation and stable remittances will continue to underpin economic growth in El Salvador.
• A stable US labour market has provided an important tailwind to El Salvador in this respect, even if stickier inflation has prevented the Federal Reserve from beginning to cut interest rates, which could lead to stronger growth in El Salvador

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• Following growth of 5.7% y-o-y in Q1 2024 which was an acceleration from 4.0% in Q4 2023, we expect the Turkish economy to move onto a slower growth path over the next several quarters. 
• Due to the strong performance in Q1 2024, we have had to revise up our full-year growth view for 2024 from 0.6% to 2.7% but this is still a notable slowing

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• We forecast that the Central Bank of Kuwait will lower its benchmark policy rate by 50 basis points (bps) in H2 2024, less than the 75bps cuts that will be carried out by the US Federal Reserve. 
• The elevated policy rate in H2 2023 and H1 2024 – the highest since 2006 – paired with lower global food prices, will lead to a lagged slowdown in