Articles

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

Key View

• 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

Key View 

• 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

Key View 

• 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

Key View

• 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

Key View

• 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

Key View

• 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

Key View

• The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore has developed a comprehensive Green Data Centre Roadmap to steer the growth of data centres in a sustainable direction, while setting a target of 300MW to be allocated in the near-term for future IT load.
• We believe it is unlikely that the initiative will rekindle large-scale

Key View

• Latin America will have the second highest health expenditure growth of any global region between 2024 and 2032. 
• Healthcare budgets will continue to outpace economic growth in key Latin American markets, signalling an increased focus on healthcare expenditure despite limited GDP growth.
• Advancing universal healthcare coverage and healthcare