The Banking & Insurance sector – often referred to as the lifeblood of the real economy – is of vital importance in the modern credit-driven economic growth model. Among its functions are intermediation between savers and borrowers, ensuring funds are allocated efficiently; support of payment and settlement systems that facilitate trade and international economic relations; and provision of various products that mitigate risk and uncertainty. The accelerating pace of technological change, stricter regulation and shifting consumer habits are reshaping the traditional banking model and pushing the sector towards innovation-led growth.
Activities associated with Banking & Insurance are depositary and non-depositary credit intermediation and related activities, investment banking, securities brokerage, commodity contracts dealing and diverse financial investment activities. The sector also includes insurers, re-insurers and insurance brokerages, pension funds, health and welfare funds, monetary authorities, stock exchanges, and collection and credit agencies.
In Q1 2020, the performance of China’s retail sector was affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The country’s GDP declined by 6.8% y/y in the period, while the GDP generated by the wholesale and retail sectors dropped by 17.8% y/y. Average ...
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Mexico is the second largest economy in Latin America in terms of nominal GDP, and thereby a key consumer market in the region with a population of over 126mn as of December 2019. Over the period 2014-2019, the retail trade sector performed well, ...
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Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, so its retail sector is an attractive destination for investors. A 2019 ranking by A.T. Kearney placed the country as the fifth most attractive retail emerging market. The ...
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Healthcare expenditure in Romania has been increasing steadily in recent years (up by 15.6% y/y in 2017), but remains the lowest in the EU28, both in per capita purchasing power and as a share of GDP (5.2% in 2017). An Ageing population and ...
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Turkey’s healthcare system has been fully reformed under the 2003-2013 Health Transformation Programme (HTP), expanding the coverage and quality of health services across the country. Healthcare has been among ...
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Automotive production in China improved in Q4 2019, increasing by 3.5% y/y to 7.6mn units. This is the first quarter that automotive output showed growth since the beginning of 2019, as market confidence recovered and automakers were again piling up ...
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In Q4 2019, the growth of China’s banking sector remained steady. The banks’ total assets reached RMB 290tn, rising by 8.1% y/y or 1.9% q/q. Meanwhile, the total assets of large commercial banks expanded rapidly by 18.7% y/y to RMB 116 ...
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The Thai government’s push on infrastructure development, particularly in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) and in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), has been a key growth driver in Thailand’s real-estate and construction sector in ...
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The Polish construction sector generated a gross value added (GVA) of PLN 148.1bn in 2018, accounting for 7% of GDP. As much as 38% of the construction output came from specialised construction activities. It was followed by construction of ...
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Thailand is the third-largest power producer and consumer in ASEAN, behind Indonesia and Vietnam. Although important, the contribution of the sector to the overall economy is small. The power sector accounted for 2.7% of nominal GDP and about 0.3% of ...
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