Articles

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• The limited nature of Israel’s retaliation against Iran on April 18/19, and Iran’s muted response, suggest that both sides are seeking to de-escalate tensions, which is now the likeliest scenario.
• Indeed, the reaction in oil markets was muted, and oil price futures are already declining. If Israel and Iran remain on this de

Latest Development: Viettel and Singtel are partnering to deploy the first subsea cable to directly connect Vietnam and Singapore. The new cable would enhance Vietnam’s international bandwidth capacity, which will be key in achieving its goal of becoming an alternative data centre hub within the east Asian region. The project also aligns with

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• If our Country Risk team’s most likely scenario of an ANC coalition with smaller parties were to materialise, this would result in policy continuity in the agriculture sector, albeit potentially at a slower pace. The most relevant policies for the agricultural sector relate to loadshedding, port efficiency and land redistribution.

Key View

• We maintain our view that a shake up in the current liberal coalition government led by Alexander De Croo in Belgian federal elections on June 9 is likely, in light of recent polls.
• Elevated social polarisation driven by the proliferation of extremist parties has played a key role in driving Belgian political risk higher ahead of

Please Note: BMI is enhancing its risk analysis with a new scoring system following its acquisition of GeoQuant, a market-leading provider of political risk data. From March 27 2024, risk scores are inverted: zero now represents the lowest risk and 100 represents the highest risk. This allows for clearer, industry-standard assessments. For

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• We maintain our positive outlook for Pakistan’s banking sector, which will benefit from stronger economic growth and a recovery in credit appetite caused by IMF support and a policy rate cut in H2 2024.
• Credit to the private sector will gradually recover, primarily driven by improved demand in major industries such as wholesale &

Key View

• Sustained focus on economic diversification will strengthen the UAE's pharmaceutical sector.
• Rollout of mandatory private health insurance will boost pharmaceutical sales in the UAE.
• High consumer spending power and brand loyalty will limit pace of generic drug uptake.

Sustained focus on economic diversification will strengthen

Key View

• Advancing net zero in healthcare will become increasingly important for healthcare systems, aligning with the global trend across all industries to address the impact of climate change.
• Decarbonisation through reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions will be a near to medium-term target for healthcare systems.
• The growing trend of net

Please Note: BMI is enhancing its risk analysis with a new scoring system following acquisition of GeoQuant, a market-leading provider of political risk data. From March 27 2024, risk scores are inverted: zero now represents the lowest risk and 100 the highest, for clearer, industry-standard assessments. For further details, please refer to our

Key View

• The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) will increase medicine prices, as a response to ongoing macroeconomic headwinds weighing on domestic drugmakers.
• High Out-Of-Pocket payments and reduced household spending power will erode Egypt’s pharmaceutical market value in real terms. 
• In 2024, the generic drug market share will reduce