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Latest Development: Smart Communications (Smart), a subsidiary of incumbent, Philippines-based operator PLDT, has initiated a campaign to boost eSIM adoption among prepaid customers, offering current Smart subscribers an upgrade to eSIM for PHP99 (USD1.75) while retaining their number, and providing non-Smart users the option to switch to Smart

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 the

Key View

• We anticipate a mixed performance for the major Sub-Saharan African currencies in 2024, though the majority will perform better than they did in 2023.
• Both the Ghanaian cedi and Nigerian naira will pare back some losses over the coming quarters, while the Kenyan shilling and Zambian kwacha will also perform fairly well in 2024 having

Key View: Over the medium to long term, we expect more government support and increased regional EV production to support passenger EV sales in Kazakhstan. However, the country's aged power grid and limited generation capacity will prove to be a tough challenge to overcome for most potential EV buyers. This could eventually shift the demand from

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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.
• If

Latest Development: Norway is set to introduce regulations targeting data centres, particularly to curb energy-intensive crypto mining operations, to prevent electricity disruptions affecting heating systems and to reduce environmental damage from carbon emissions. The proposal is indicative of a wider regulatory stance, primarily across developed

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• 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 the

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

Key View:

• 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 &

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• 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 the UAE's