Articles

Key View: In January 2024, Marriott opened its St. Regis Red Sea Resort in Saudi Arabia. The new resort, which features 90 villas and is targeted at luxury travellers seeking leisure and relaxation in a beach resort, highlights the continued investment and commitment by international hotel chains into the kingdom’s tourism investment drive. The

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• In its latest meeting on January 31, the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) cut the benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 11.25% as inflation cools towards the target range, and signalled further rate cuts to come.
• For the upcoming March 31 meeting, we expect a further 50bps reduction to 10.75%, driven by moderate inflation and slowing

The Latest: On January 29 2024, AbbVie announced a major expansion initiative for its manufacturing operations in Singapore with an investment of USD223mn. This strategic infusion of capital is intended to bolster AbbVie's worldwide production network with an emphasis on the development of biologic drugs. The planned expansion will not only

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• The Bank of England (BoE) held Bank Rate steady at 5.25% on February 1 2024, marking the fourth rate hold in a row. The BoE has clearly entered a holding pattern, which we expect to extend well into 2024.
• We anticipate that the BoE will begin to reduce rates in H2 2024, with 75bps of cuts pencilled in by end-year.
• Although our

In this article, we will discuss our five-year outlook for the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) banking sector, highlighting some key themes that we think will emerge, as well as the main risks affecting the sector. This article will be part of a series of regional pieces looking into SSA banking sectors.

Projected growth in total assets for the SSA

Latest Development: Advance estimates on January 31 showed that the economy of Hong Kong, China grew by 0.5% on a q-o-q seasonally adjusted basis in Q423, accelerating from 0.3% growth in Q323. On a y-o-y basis, the economy grew by 4.3% in the final quarter, which was above our expectation of 3.5% growth but below the consensus forecast of 4.7%

Key View: We highlight Bulgaria as a market to watch for tourism investment over the medium term (2024-2028). We estimate that the market’s total tourist arrivals made a full recovery to their pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and will grow by an annual average of 3.7% over the medium term to reach a projected 15.5mn in 2028. We highlight investment in

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• We expect the NOK to appreciate gradually over the course of 2024 even as it faces short-term headwinds as a favourable interest rate differential and lower NOK sales by Norges Bank support the unit.
• Our expectation for a favourable interest rate differential between Norges Bank and other central banks drives our bullish forecast for

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• Saudi Arabia's GDP will recover from a contraction of 0.9% in 2023 to positive growth of 2.4% in 2024, with the non-oil economy doing much of the heavy lifting in tandem with a normalisation in oil production.
• Steady oil production, sluggish demand for Saudi non-oil exports and steady import growth will see net exports remain a drag

Key View

• Foreign pharmaceutical companies will continue to cast a vote of confidence in Mainland China's medicine market and will expand investment.
• We believe in 2024 multinational companies will increasingly partner with local companies in Mainland China to leverage the synergies of both foreign and domestic companies.
• Mainland China's