SBWire

Air transportation in the BRIC countries is expanding rapidly, as economic growth continues and disposable incomes rise. Whilst 2012 saw airline profits dip due to high fuel prices and currency fluctuations, growth in capacity and passenger numbers continued unabated. Improvements to airport infrastructure are occurring across all the BRIC nations, in particular in Brazil and Russia, in readiness for future sporting events.

The development of illegal food exports to Libya is a product of the now very porous shared borders between both countries and has led to supply disruptions inside Tunisia as many food products found their way across the border to Libya rather than supplying the local Tunisian market. This phenomenon directly impacted prices leading to considerable increases as there were product shortages in the country. Moreover, the increases in prices of essential goods, such as petroleum, sugar and wheat,...

Global Markets Direct's, 'Muscle Spasticity - Pipeline Review, H2 2013', provides an overview of the indication's therapeutic pipeline. This report provides information on the therapeutic development for Muscle Spasticity, complete with latest updates, and special features on late-stage and discontinued projects. It also reviews key players involved in the therapeutic development for Muscle Spasticity. Muscle Spasticity - Pipeline Review, Half Year is built using data and information sourced from Global Markets Direct's proprietary databases, Company/University websites, SEC filings, investor presentations and featured press releases from company/university sites and industry-specific third party sources, put together by Global Markets Direct's team.

While the slowdown in eurozone demand has had an important impact in Poland, we expect the country to do reasonably well against the background of a slow regional recovery. The country's external position remains relatively strong, with the current account deficit set to narrow and growth in the real value of foreign trade to accelerate over 2013.

BMI View: As of early 2013, our overall impression is that Romania's insurance sector remains resilient in face of a number of challenges. In spite of the general softness of the economy in general and sales of cars in particular, there has not been a sharp contraction in non-life premiums. Premiums in the life segment have held up fairly well too, suggesting that - for those Romanians who can afford the regular premiums - life insurance is valued as a conduit for their savings.

Global Market Direct's pharmaceuticals report, "Palatin Technologies, Inc. - Product Pipeline Review - 2013" provides data on the Palatin Technologies, Inc.'s research and development focus. The report includes information on current developmental pipeline, complete with latest updates, and features on discontinued and dormant projects.

BMI View: Oil output will rise in the short-term as new fields are brought online or are ramped up to peak production levels to offset declining volumes from the flagship Bach Ho field. We expect oil output to peak in 2016 but fall thereafter, as further growth could be hindered by exploration limits imposed by Vietnam's maritime dispute with China in the South China Sea. New developments are set to boost long-term gas production, while its downstream is finally picking up after years of delay in pushing forth new and much needed projects to meet the country's growing fuel demand.

BMI View: We believe that the factors supporting our bullish outlook for Thailand's construction sector in 2012 - namely, the implementation of flood prevention measures, robust building construction activity and conducive monetary conditions for construction - will spill over in 2013. Combined with increased access to infrastructure financing and a large pipeline of construction projects, we believe that construction real growth could reach 5.2% in 2013. However, we do not expect construction activity to increase as rapidly or as significantly as the Thai government expects. This is because of labour and material shortages, the country's deteriorating fiscal position, business environment issues and the potential for political turmoil.

"Trends and Opportunities in the Gambian Non-Life Insurance Industry to 2017: Market Profile" is the result of extensive research into the insurance industry, covering the non-life insurance market in Gambia. The report provides data on key industry trends, market drivers and challenges for the Gambian insurance industry. It also provides growth prospects for the non-life insurance market in Gambia for the following categories:

After an estimated 27% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in new vehicle sales in UAE during 2012, we forecast the market to grow by an average of nearly 9% y-o-y during our five year forecast period to 2017. The most potent factors driving this growth will be favourable macroeconomic conditions and household spending, increased access to vehicle financing and the migration from the neighbouring states.

This report is the result of Timetric's extensive market research covering the industrial construction industry in Denmark. It contains detailed historic and forecast market value data for the industrial construction industry, including a breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition). 'Industrial Construction in Denmark to 2017: Market Forecast' provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of the industrial construction industry in Denmark. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Danish construction value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.

The Libyan insurance industry is very small when compared to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In terms of gross written premium, the insurance industry grew between 2008 and 2011 in spite of the global financial crisis. Political unrest in the form of the Arab Spring caused a 52% decline in the country's insurance industry in 2011. It is expected that the industry will grow at a CAGR of 6.1% over the forecast period. The low insurance density (premium per capita) and penetration of the insurance industry is expected to encourage foreign insurance companies to enter the Libyan insurance industry over the forecast period.

Indonesia is set to see a surge in petrochemicals volumes in the short-to-medium term amid growing investor interest in this fast-growing market. However, we warn that declining oil production and a restricted refining base could undermine naphtha feedstock supplies. Furthermore, imports will continue to take up an increasing share of the market as supply struggles to keep up with demand.

With leading indicators showing much-sought-after improvements in the Japanese economy, we believe the optimism following the regime change in Japan will help to drive a pickup in economic activity in 2013. As such, we have revised up our forecast for GDP to 1.4%, from a previous forecast of 0.9%. We have also revised up our forecast for private consumption, and now expect growth of 1.5% in 2013, up from our previous forecast of 0.6% but still much lower than the 2.3% recorded in 2012.

The Cambodian and Laotian telecoms markets are similar in several ways. Both countries have a relatively well-developed mobile sector, although prepaid subscriptions are the norm, resulting in low ARPU levels. Their fixed-line industries are still expected to experience growth at least until 2017 but mobile substitution is becoming an increasing threat, especially when operators step up their rural expansion plans. The mobile-over-fixed scenario is also likely to play out in the broadband segment, considering the lower cost associated with mobile broadband products and services.

Construction activity in Malaysia has continued to grow at an impressive rate, but we believe we are seeing signs that the current construction cycle has reached its peak. This outlook is primarily due to falling demand for residential and non-residential buildings, as well as financing and political risks in the infrastructure sector. Having said that, there remains robust interest in Malaysia's construction sector as the country's 10-year economic plan continues to present significant project opportunities. This has prompted us to re-evaluate our outlook for Malaysia's construction sector over the short-term, with our forecasts for construction real growth revised up to 9.1% in 2013 (previously 7.2%) and 6.5% in 2014 (previously 5.9%).

The Egypt Retail Report examines the long-term potential of the local consumer market, but flags shortterm concerns about the impact on Egypt's economic outlook of ongoing policy uncertainty. The report examines how best to maximise returns in the Egyptian retail market while minimising investment risk, and also explores the impact of the generally weak outlook for the global economy heading into 2013 on the Egyptian consumer and on the ability of producers and exporters to realise returns in the short term.

The improving performance of Mexico's regulatory system presents more opportunities for multinational pharmaceutical companies seeking to enter the Mexican pharmaceutical market. On the back of favourable economic and political conditions, we forecast Mexico's pharmaceutical market will grow at a rate of 8.8% in 2013 in local currency terms and 14.4% in US dollar terms.

We believe that construction activity in South Korea could pick-up in 2013 even though the lack of construction growth in recent quarters (particularly for infrastructure) has dampened our outlook for the construction sector. This pick-up is due to improving monetary conditions for construction activity, the government's plans to improve the country's infrastructure (particularly electricity supply), growing demand for tourism-related facilities and to a lesser extent, housing stimulus measures. As such, we are maintaining our forecasts for construction real growth at 2.7% in 2013, an improvement from the -1.6% seen in 2012.

We see the Saudi consumer providing good growth for the consumer electronics market, at around 5% in 2013 and rising to 6-7% in the following years of our forecast. These trends are supported by wage hikes and government investment policies. Demand in 2012 was supported by a favourable trading environment with Saudi King Abdullah's US$93bn in handouts, including wage increases, supporting spending on big-ticket lifestyle products such as smartphones and flat-screen TV sets. We expect the market to remain a key part of the Middle East's consumer electronics outlook and a key hub for vendors in the region.

One of the representatives at Vebo Pet Supplies stated, “We offer a large range of dog crates and dog cages for training, as well as foldable and light weight pet carriers that would allow owners to travel with their pets easily. We also sell heavy duty outdoor kennels and dog runs for larger pets at very affordable prices. In fact, we probably carry the largest range of pet enclosures in Australia, and by minimizing distribution costs, we are able to offer quality products at very affordable prices.”

The Malaysia Real Estate report examines the commercial office, retail, industrial and construction segments throughout the country in the context of rising headwinds. With a focus on the principal cities of Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Kota Kinabalu, the report covers the rental market performance in terms of rates and yields over the past 24 months, and examines how best to maximise returns in the commercial real estate market while minimising investment risk.

The Philippines IT market is forecast to grow by around 9.6% in 2013 to a value of PHP165.8bn. Over our five-year forecast period to 2017, the market should be a regional outperformer, growing at a CAGR of 9.1% in local currency terms to a total value of PHP234bn. Growth will be supported by proliferation of PC ownership as high specification, but affordable devices, becomes widely available. In this respect the Philippines has great potential via its low PC penetration, estimated at 10% in 2011, according to The Singapore Management University, particularly with support from government ICT programmes. Other contributory factors for growth include the outsourcing industry, cloud computing uptake by government and SMEs, and investment in IT in the education and healthcare sectors.

Boosting bilateral co-operation between Nigerian buyers and Indian drugmakers will directly obstruct the Nigerian government's goal to increase self-sufficiency in medicines production. We do not believe implementing a selected import ban on pharmaceuticals should be considered by the government as a means of reducing import reliance. Evidently, it would lead to shortages in medicine supplies. However, in light of evidence that fixed capital investments may have been increasing over the last five years, we believe the government should encourage joint ventures and technology transfer obligations between local and Indian companies. This will make gradual headway towards improving self-sufficiency.

GlobalData has released its new PharmaPoint Drug Evaluation report, "Keppra (Epilepsy) - Forecast and Market Analysis to 2022". Epilepsy is a brain disorder characterized by spontaneously occurring and recurrent seizures. The market is heavily driven by the sales of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) targeted at seizure reduction. The AED market is currently dominated by UCB's Keppra and GlaxoSmithKline's Lamictal. Although both drugs have experienced significant generic erosion, they form the mainstay of epilepsy treatment in the nine markets and will continue to have significant market share during the forecast period. Other key drugs include older generation AEDs such as Pfizer's Dilantin, Abbott's Depakote, and Novartis' Tegretol and Trileptal which still have significant usage due to their longevity in the market. However, the AED dominance landscape will continue to shift towards newer generation drugs particularly following the recent market entry of GlaxoSmithKline's Trobalt/Potiga and Eisai's Fycompa which both offer first-in-class mechanisms of action.