SBWire

Part of a three-part series, Wealth in Belgium: Sizing the Market Opportunity analyzes Belgium's wealth and retail savings and investments markets, with a particular focus on the HNW segment. Analysis is based upon Datamonitor's 2012 Global Wealth Managers Survey, Datamonitor's Global Wealth Market Analytics, and Datamonitor's Global Retail Savings and Investments Analytics.

Compared to other beauty and personal care categories, deodorants performed relatively well in 2011, albeit posting a decline. The main reason for this is the fact that the majority of consumers use deodorants on a daily basis, with these seen as commodity rather than non-essential products.

Despite ongoing economic insecurity throughout the world, the Swiss luxury goods industry once again proved its resilience by registering robust growth in 2012. There was an overriding sense of optimism for the industry as a whole, which was greatly accentuated by the boost in sales figures deriving from the spike in luxury goods retail tourism which has been evident in Switzerland since 2010. Other factors which contributed to the strong growth recorded in luxury goods in Switzerland in 2012...

A more educated, urbanised and economically stable market in 2012 meant that consumers spent more on tissue and hygiene products than in previous years, even amidst an economic slowdown. In terms of potential, there is still a long way to go as household penetration of these products remains low and limited to urban middle- and upper-class consumers. However, new consumers helped to provide strong sales growth and indicate ongoing development.

In 2012, the Colombian government increased imports of rice by 35,000 tonnes from neighbouring Andean countries and 79,000 tonnes from the US. The imports are part of a plan to prevent rice shortages due to low output from domestic crops that may be impacted by a drier than usual summer and a long rainy season in 2012. Thanks to free trade agreements, this may lower the price of rice in the short term.

Sauces, dressings and condiments sales value grew in 2012 thanks to the increased interest of Belgian consumers in cooking at home. From Indian curry to a barbecue marinade, cooking has become a popular leisure activity. During the economic downturn, Belgian consumers have reorientated their leisure expenses; going out has been replaced by home cooking and barbecuing, using premium and/or exotic ingredients. During the review period, increased media coverage promoting famous chefs' recipe...

Consumers in Singapore as generally not as knowledgeable about cheese as their Western counterparts, thus they tend to select cheese based on its country of origin. Some popular ones include those which originate from Australia and New Zealand. Nonetheless, consumers are increasingly learning more about cheese and are developing more sophisticated tastes as they gain greater exposure to various types of cheese.

In 2012, the total volume growth of coffee was 10%, which was slightly slower than that in the previous year. Although China witnessed economic decline in the review period, the boom in the coffee culture in many cities helped to spur consumer interest in coffee and stimulated consumption growth. The development of coffee shops, including chained and independent cafes, spread the coffee culture, which is a very popular lifestyle in urban areas.

Sales growth in 2012 was higher than the CAGR for the 2007-2012 review period and slightly lower than 2011 growth. For several channels, 2011 was an unusually strong year and 2012 continued the growth momentum. With US$404 billion in sales, the mixed retailers channel represents a significant portion of retail sales in the US.

The United Arab Emirates is well on the path to economic recovery, with consumer confidence and disposable income on the rise. Immigration to the country has again resumed, with affluent Western expatriates bringing a preference for premium and value-added laundry care products developed in their home countries.

2012 witnessed a significant decrease in the price of sugar caused by an excess supply of sugar in the national market. Earlier in the year, the price of sugar in Mexico was higher than in the US. In response to this price disparity, Mexican producers did not export sugar to the US. This resulted in an excess supply of sugar in Mexico, with producers pouring their product into the market to avoid the accumulation of old sugar. The excess supply of sugar put significant downward pressure on the...

Lithuanians have a strong tradition of herbal/traditional medicine. However, when it comes to serious illnesses, traditional products are outselling roots and herbs by a wide margin. Despite the ongoing move towards naturalness in Lithuania, ranging from food to clothes to pharmaceuticals, industry sources maintain that the number of herbal/traditional product users is stable. The claim is supported by the numbers: in 2012, just over a fifth of all consumer health products were...

For Q213 we are sticking with our existing forecasts for Morocco's mining sector. We expect growth to speed up in 2013 as a result of new phosphate fertiliser plants in the country, rising to 8.2% year-on-year (yo- y). We expect growth to average 3.6% y-o-y from 2012 to 2017, reaching US$1.61bn by the end of the period. For 2017 we forecast a conservative growth rate, as it remains to be seen how the effect of Saudi Arabia's large investments in phosphate production capacity and China's drive towards self-sufficiency in key raw material inputs will affect Morocco's mining prospects.

BMI Ratings - Brief Methodology

BMI projects that Hong Kong consumer electronics spending grew by about 6% in US dollar terms in 2013 to US$4.8bn, but a moderation in consumer demand is expected. Vendors anticipate bright spots such as HD TV sets, low-cost Ultrabooks and 4G smartphones, but a wealth effect from any cooling in property prices and an equity market that appears to have peaked could have an impact on consumer spending. BMI expects consumer electronics to outperform general retail sales, and the release of Windows 8 will provide a boost to the PC market. However, demand has been muted by slowing inbound tourism as well as poor domestic consumer sentiment. Product innovation will continue to drive growth in the AV segment, while demand will continue to be spurred by the influx of mainland tourists.

In January 2013, passenger car sales in Italy declined 17.6% year-on-year (y-o-y), to 113,525 units. BMI forecasts a decline of 7.8% in 2013 on the back of an ongoing decline in private consumption. We maintain this forecast for now as we expect the market to moderate somewhat over the course of the year. Further, sales volumes in the first half of 2012 were larger than in the second half, so the large decline witnessed in January is unlikely to be sustained throughout the year.

BMI View: Tanzania's mobile market returned to growth in Q312 after recording its first quarterly net subscriptions loss in the previous quarter, increasing the mobile penetration rate to 54%. We retain our view of strong subscriptions growth in basic voice services over our forecast period, through to 2017, considering the relatively low mobile penetration rate. However, we expect operators to ramp up their investments in higher value services, including mobile data, to sustain revenue growth amid increasing regulatory and competitive downward pressure on call tariffs.

BMI View: Full-year data for 2012 confirms that several trends previously identified by BMI continue to play out in the US power market. Almost all regions of the country experienced an increase in natural gasfired generation from that seen in 2011, with higher relative prices and environmental regulations having led to lower consumption of coal. Additionally, the retiring of old nuclear plants and delays to new projects corroborated our long-held view that nuclear power will be a victim of the shale gas revolution. These dynamics will continue to be key in shaping the country's electricity mix in the long term; however, we highlight that fuels' relative prices, the pace of economic growth and regulatory changes will all play a role in determining the speed and magnitude of the changes.

We expect the Czech consumer sector to remain challenging owing to the ongoing weakness of the economy, and as the government's commitment to fiscal consolidation measures will restrain household and public consumption in 2013. Real GDP readings from Q412 confirm that the Czech Republic remains mired in recession, with economic activity contracting by 1.7% year-on-year, representing the fourth consecutive quarter of economic contraction to date. Czech household consumption remains stubbornly weak as government austerity measures erode disposable income and keep unemployment persistently high. Household consumption in 2012 is believed to have experienced its worst contraction in real terms since 1992. Despite this relatively bleak picture, we see a number of signals that align with our expectations for economic growth to stage a recovery this year. Domestic confidence has shown signs of improvement in recent months, with the consumer confidence indicator rising to -22.3 in February, from -26.3 in November 2012.

BMI sees considerable strengthening in vehicle production, vehicle imports and car ownership in Nigeria's auto industry over the next few years. One of Africa's most powerful economies is expected to continue performing well in 2013, with growth potentially breaking 7% amid controlled inflation and a stable currency. A strong economy is also likely to be a boon for auto loans in the country as Nigeria's banks expand amid stability, providing a growing middle class with greater access to credit.

Switzerland's mobile market had a mixed 2012, but remains one of the most lucrative markets in Western Europe, and globally. Subscription growth continued and LTE was launched in 2012. However, at the same time ARPU declined sharply. Even after this decline, Switzerland remains one of the highest value mobile markets globally, underpinned by high incomes and demand for advanced services. We believe it has subscription growth potential exceeding many of its developed market peers, while high incomes and technological literacy creates strong foundations for higher capacity service growth ie fibre and LTE. The outlook is bright for the wireless and wireline markets, despite the squeeze from market saturation and threats to traditional revenues from IP alternatives.

While the property measures enacted thus far will likely result in considerably lower property transaction volumes over the coming months, we do not believe that a substantial sell-off is on the horizon. Instead, the real trigger for a correction in the market is more likely to be the eventual normalisation of interest rates, which will stretch the affordability of mortgage payments and negate rental profits. However, we believe that Hong Kong's property market boasts strong underlying fundamentals that will continue to support price appreciation over the long term.

The continually rising cost of medical care has made it harder for many Americans who may not have health insurance or cannot get approval for certain procedures, to afford care that could increase the quality and length of their lives. Because of this, many are going without necessary treatment rather than paying for medical procedures out of pocket. United Medical Credit is a company that provides innovative healthcare financing programs to ensure these people get the health care they need.

We forecast Russian IT spending will grow 11.4% in 2013 to reach RUB696.2bn.As well as spending being driven by rising incomes and an expanding middle class, the market is set to receive a boost after Russia's historic entry into the WTO, finally confirmed in August 2012. Enterprise modernisation is also increasing spending on hardware and business software applications. Major projects in key sectors such as banking, and oil and gas, and a restructuring of the utilities sector are key opportunities for vendors. Meanwhile, in the retail hardware market the expanding range of tablets and slim-line laptops available is helping to increase sales by meeting consumer demand for affordable mobile computing devices.